Garden dilemma

We had a rubbish lawn when we moved here. The soil is clay, it is on top of a not very well broken up play ground and sloped from side to side.

We spent quite a lot on levelling the ground (2 different levels) with planted 'shelves' between. One patio is in full sun but the other is shady. Our beds are not raised apart from the 'steps' between the top and bottom. We love it.

Oh, and I forgot to say, our paving slabs are not slippery. They are called exposed aggregate, although you may have a different name for them there. Concrete with little round pebbles exposed.

In the spring my DH gives them a scrub with bleachy water and a power washer to get rid of any moss or algae, and they they are fine. I will pull the little grass sprouts it they start up between the slabs.

That sounds beautiful Blackwit
I have a meadow area on part of my lawn but it's taking a few years to look like a meadow. Although the yellow rattle is there, so is the grass.

I've always disliked lawns, so when I bought this house 27 years ago there was a lot of uneven, lumpy, bumpy grass. I had a large patio built surrounded by rendered raised beds. We then decked the rest of the garden around a large formal pond and extended most of the flower beds some of them we made huge. I also have a quite large purpose built summer house which is also part shed. The decking I would not recommend it can get very slippery sometimes if I don't stay on top of the pressure washing. The paving has never been a problem, but it does have a semi textured surface. I don't know why but I always considered how it might get more difficult as I aged, unfortunately I became disabled before leaving my 50's and I'm getting progressively worse. Just as well I'm not a gardener into fussy gardening. I'm a big fan of shrubs and greenery, especially variegated leafy plants. I will at sometime probably replace the decking with either composite decking or paving but in no hurry. I know when I'm ready my younger son will do the work for me so I'll only be paying for the goods not the labour, luckily he accepts lots of love as payment.

A lovely garden is hard work .
I told my son in law that after a major replanting it's really an hour a day keeping it nice and if you don't do that you have to catch up at the weekend .
He looked crestfallen .
They have a small garden - mainly lawn with narrow flower beds .
I'm also really struggling with the garden :

It was very boring until my father dug huge flower beds and a pond .
He spent all his spare time mowing , weeding and planting until it became too much .
He then had a succession of poor gardeners .
They hadn't a clue .
He lost his temper .

Then , I did the garden for him as he scowled at me from the kitchen window .
My children got fed up with his attitude .
One bought plants and one gardened .
And unthanked - they stopped .
I've battled on until he being bedridden stopped watching me .

I employed someone about two years ago to blitz the garden as I was having a couple of garden parties .
He was a failure unless his florist wife was around .
Maybe it was too much for him as he kept on straightening up ,
fiddling with his head phones and left before the appointed time .

Now I do as much as I can-two hours yesterday.
So far an hour today.

I'm desperately trying to reduce the size of the flower beds or at least make them less labour intensive .
I also have far too many potted plants to care for.
So I'm reducing them .

When we moved in we had a garden that was mostly boring lawn with shrubs around the boundaries and 2 raised beds. I decided to go with the flow regarding the grass, scalped it with the lawn mower, planted wild flower plugs and sprinkled yellow rattle seeds around to weaken the grass and keep it short.

I now have a lawn with ox-eye daisies, meadow geranium, mallow, creeping veronica, white and pink clover, yarrow, birds foot trefoil and 2 mown paths. The rest is cut twice a year. I get to enjoy the sight of all the insects my garden attracts, along with all the birds looking for a meal. There are humps in my lawn which I discovered are made by yellow meadow ants, but I can live with that. It’s untidy, but no longer boring and definitely low maintenance.

My yard is all paved and I have several raised beds as well as some large pots. The slabs aren't so much slippy as dirty especailly after such a wet winter. Algae can be an issue in shady bits and especially around the water butt which overflows when there's a lot of rain.
Even though it was given a good clean a few weeks ago the dirt is returning and will need doing again as soon as the sun comes out, if it ever does!
The other issue is good drainage, the drains have to be cleared at least once a year as they get clogged with leaves etc that blow over from outside.
There is no such thing as low maintenance gardening but I do find it preferable to grass these days.

We have partially lawn, and a slab area, with beds in between. It's the best of both worlds really. Grandchildren have just enough room for a game of badminton or summersaults, and we have a flat area for sitting and socializing. Our garden is on a bit of a slope, so steps and a bed of perennials in between areas.

We decided to have raised beds built and made a basic plan how it would look. The raised beds were built with old sleepers and paving around the beds. We had to get flaggers in but it was years ago and I don’t remember the cost. We paid for the sleepers and soil but our son actually did the work for the beds.

You are probably best making a very simple plan of what you would ideally like done. In our area we now have a local handyman who will lend his hand to any job on a daily rate. You could ring local garden maintenance people and with your basic plan you could maybe get an idea of the costs involved.

If your plan works out too much personally I would have the bumpy areas dug up and plant shrubs and perennials for easy maintenance.

Ours is all slabbed but with the original ground level beds.
The slabs have a wavy surface texture to them and I wouldn't say they were slippery. The bonus for me is that I can potter about whatever the weather.
Can't help with costs as we did it ourselves, a very long time ago!