A large garden

Hi Aprilshowers I found it very disappointing when I realised I could no longer garden as I wanted and had to start cutting back on bedding and a vegetable gardening due to my limited mobility.
Not sure of your situation or if its just motivation you need? If you are fit and able start in one spot, I used to pick a bed or a particular display area and concentrate solely on that small area until I got it how I wanted.. it won't look so overwhelming if you tackle it little by little.

I find that if I put on my jacket and gardening shoes and just get started on something it just seems to continue from there. But don't worry too much about it at this time of the year. It's still very early. Just do a bit as and when the sun shines. And I find it best to keep to an hour and no more. Exhaustion can get dangerous. (Thinking shears and an incident which involved a trip to the surgery)

I agree, just start. You will be surprised how much you get done. I tell everyone ours is a 'work in progress' and won't ever be perfect but I don't actually want a perfect garden.

When we told a friend that one day it would all be too much and we would have to downsize he pointed out that it is a lot cheaper to pay someone to help than to move. He had a good point.

Ours is big too, and I can find it a bit overwhelming once the weeds take over. However, I have found 3 things which help, and might help you. 1. The bits I don't get round to are a Nature Garden, and are like that on purpose (fools some people, and me, anyway!). In fact, we do have a lot of insects and birds, so we are doing our bit for biodiversity. 2. If you can get even a small patch weeded in March or early April (might need to be earlier, depending how far south you are), it generally stays in pretty good shape for the rest of the year. 3. If you're gardening, pick a bit you fancy on that day, concentrate on it, and don't let the rest worry you. You don't have to go back to that bit next time if you prefer somewhere else. I find that that approach makes what I do feel worth it, and in fact I get a lot more done than if I try to tackle the whole lot.

Hope this helps! Your point about paying for help rather than moving is a good one, Nonnie!

Sit in the warm with a pencil and paper and a nice and do some thinking and planning ready to start in the spring.
Look at some ideas online on how to make it all a lot easier to cope with and then make your plans accordingly.

It is still hibernation time

We are coping badly with the garden . It's the wild life. The squirrels dig up the pots of bulbs ,the badgers dig up the lawn ,the deer nibble the roses and laugh scornfully at the fences. It's just churned up mud at the moment. And after the storms there are as many leaves as there were in November with added branches. Four snowdrops that's all this year.

I actually came out of hibernation for an hour yesterday.
Sun was shining. Went out and did a bit. Back in hibernation today.

Oh dear Stansgran Don't worry too much. Come the Spring it will all perk up. (we've got a perishing deer too)

Be grateful you don't live in a tower block!

Valid point about paying for help with the heavier/inaccessible/boring bits. My mother was feeling overwhelmed by her three quarter acre garden some years ago and she was getting very low at the prospect of down sizing. My sister drew up a list of moving costs, including all the stuff Mum hadn't considered - like her furniture being too big and having to buy new, carpets and decor not being to her taste and having to be replaced. The total would have paid for three hours help every week for thirty years! She was much happier about it after that and enjoyed pottering in her beloved garden for the rest of her life.
When I go out I set myself the target of filling my smallish wheelbarrow with weeds and rubbish, as I'm a flitter and do a little bit in a lot of places!

Stansgran totally envious of your description of your garden visitors.

Forget about making it pretty this early in the year , sit and enjoy your 'visitors' instead...and invite me along with my camera please

Last autumn I saw someone buying a mini flame thrower for killing weeds, sounds like fun so I might get one. If anyone already has one it would be good to know what they think

I've had a mini flame thrower for years to cope with the mares tail on my allotment which I've now given up.
They are good on weeds growing between paving etc but in flower beds you could easily scorch your plants. You don't burn the weeds completely just wilt them and they die off. Stuff like dock and dandelion always come back though.
Useful for running over a prepared seed bed before sowing to kill off dormant weed seeds.
One word of warning, keep well away from sheds, greenhouses and the walls of any buildings, you could start a fire!
With all that in mind I would recommend them if only for the satisfaction.

If you can afford it, pay someone to weed and cut back and then cover all the bare earth with wood chip. It will look neat and keep the weeds at bay. Then when the sun shines, you will want to go out and plant and potter.

Lawns are a problem at the moment, the grass is so long but too wet. I might pay someone to do the first cut and take the cuttings away.

Not getting started is a big problem with me, I really need a friend to come and say 'let's do it together', I would gladly do the same for him/her, whether it be gardening, cleaning, decorating or whatever.

I have seen several successful 'shared' gardens - you advertise for a family who want to have a garden to share your garden with you - you provide the garden and they do the planting etc. If you have room for a vegetable garden that would be even more of a draw for a family (many new houses have tiny gardens with no room to grow anything if you have kiddies). www.landshare.net/ is one site that you can register with.

Food for thought from the Daily Telegraph: Gardening for seniors

Article 1

How to garden into old age
Despite changes in health, wealth or the weather, there's plenty of ways to make sure you can still potter about in a garden.

Book; The Age-Proof Garden by Patty Cassidy, packed full of ideas for stress-free and low-maintenance gardening.

www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/9952346/How-to-garden-into-old-age.html

Article no 2

Getting elderly gardening could save NHS £11,000 a year per person
Simply enabling elderly people to tend their garden could save the taxpayer as much as £11,000 a year per person, a landmark pilot study has found

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/elder/9291222/Getting-elderly-gardening-could-save-NHS-11000-a-year-per-person.html

i redesigned my garden about 7 years ago when i came into some money. having got three quotes and found that only one of them was what i wanted i went with that guy.

now i've got a "courtyard" garden bounded by fences on three sides [2m ones] with a pond in the middle. i didn't want grass as i knew i wouldn't be able to cope with it. so i had a patio laid and had my landscaper raise the beds slightly with sleepers. he gravelled where there are no beds and put bark chippings on the beds between the planting. i don't get any weeds in the beds even now.

the front garden was slightly different - it's tiny! so when he came to do that he levelled the whole thing and spread that weed suppressing fabric over it, cut crosses in it to plant what i wanted in it and then covered the whole lot with bark chippings - apart from the pathway which is gravelled. again no weeds and low maintenance.

for several years my landscaper would come around twice a year and sort the garden out and that was brilliant - this year my grandaughters are going to help as one loves pruning and the other planting!

Nonnie, I hadn't thought of that, you're right of course. If you like your home it would be a shame to move because of the garden. One thing I would suggest about where to start is weeds! Start now, if you see a new weed have it out straight away, clearing a few weeds now saves you clearing hundreds in a months time and they will have seeded so it goes on forever. I must say if I go into the garden, I'm easily distracted and find that I can spend hours tidying and weeding, instead of whatever I initially intended to do, probably something boring like bringing in the washing.
I like how so many have given their thoughts to this thread, aren't you a nice lot!(smile)

Years ago, my elderly mother couldn't manage a large garden so advertised in the local paper for someone who would like to grow their own vegetables. It worked very well--- she kept a small bit where she had her flowers and a youngish couple had a kind of allotment at the bottom of the garden, and also helped her with any heavy things. No money involved, just mutual help.

Thanks Hannah that is all the encouragement I needed, will go out and buy one and wield it well. I had a chain saw for Christmas so am going to have lots of fun this year!

We have very large hedges and have to pay someone to cut them each year. Last time we had them reduced in size and the contractor chipped them all and spread over large areas of the garden for us. I am hoping it will make a big difference to my weeding. The snowdrops have come through and look very pretty, just hope the weeds don't follow.

Make sure you find a qualified professional gardener who knows his/her plants and won't compost the precious things you love. Get them to do the big stuff and enjoy the bits you can do. Mulching is the best thing to do in the spring and autumn as it saves so much weeding and watering.
I just love vicarious gardening.

I adopt the approach advocated by Bob Flowerdew on getting gardening jobs done: start with the most mundane or boring tasks and then reward yourself later with the jobs you really enjoy.

So for me, it is the flower garden and roses in particular that I get the most pleasure. The veggie plots are much more labour intensive, but as others have suggested weed suppressing material, mulching, burning off and regular hoeing will cut down some of the labour.

I have started to reduce the size of our strawberry beds by planting immature shrubs amongst the strawberry plants them so that gradually the shrubbery will take over. Shrubs are also useful if you have the space as they also smother weeds eventually.

Now waiting impatiently for Lidl and Aldi to start their seasonal plant and shrub promotions.

Meanwhile, loving the snowdrops, hellebores and early daffs.

No snow drops this year, I wonder if it has been too mild with no cold snap to start them off (until today!) Masses of early daffs though and I'm sure I saw a frog in the pond yesterday , What a strange winter we have had .

Ihave had to give up growing veg. Shrubs, perennial plants and ground cover. Bare earth encourages weeds and cats. Fortunately my help loves gardening but only has a very small one herself so is pleased to do mine. Before that I had a succession of so-called "gardeners" who didn't know a weed from a plant and needed constant supervision.