My Gardening Life, For Limited time and minimal effort?

I’ll be honest right from the go, I love Hate Gardening, it’s partly because over the years I’ve never really had a big garden if any. It’s also down to having no time over the years to garden, being more than full-time manager and with the kids, I found spare time for the garden less important. These days I have slightly more time and a garden front back and sides, which offers a dilemma, the design, the upkeep and effort in the first place.

Some Gardening

What do I get out of it? that’s a question, I certainly enjoy doing some of the more physical stuff like hedge cutting and mowing, even though the equipment could be better, and because of my management background and my skills, I like the organizing, design, and approach of it all. However, it can get tedious doing it at least once a week, and with everything that happens over the course of the week with two jobs and kids and the house etc… I’m very limited on time.

So I’m pondering to my self about how you would approach it with limited time available and minimal effort to keep it relatively short and less prioritised, the kids still like the back garden as they play things like football, nerf fighting, outdoor games, and had a trampoline(until a storm destroyed), so the back garden had to be a bit of both.

The front and sides have issues, the long bush that wraps around about 60 meters isn’t the best and in parts looks dead or at least on its last legs. but its still scene from the front by many and to blend in still needs to have a bush and some grass, though perhaps not as much as it has.

I would like the odd potted plant, just to add a couple but again like the bushes it needs to be very low maintenance, and I would like the kids to keep on top of this. Whereas the front and sides, the grass sweeps round like a long drawn out semi-circle but the back is essentially two squares connected but off centred, so a little difficult to design, and this in toe has the garage, fences, wall, path and house all connected.

I’m thinking of still keeping some of the grass but creating an edging all the way around, carrying on the stone theme that’s already near the path and part of the side of the house, much like the front opposite the bushes creating a stone edging between the grass and the house/wall all the way around. I do like edging and this is often very minimal maintenance, as its generally just slate or stone, though I’m not settled on what the finish would look like. But with this, it provides another problem, the corners?! do they stay right angles or do I bring them out in a square or semi-circle? this could house potted plants maybe?

Overall

Overall I like the idea of still keeping some of the grass, but things I’m not clear on, what bushes works well around the sides and front for aesthetic and privacy. What stone or size of the edging. What stone or slate i use within this. What plants go in the pots? I have absolutely no clue about plants, to the sie of the house the sweeping grass extends to create a bigger semicircle, I was pondering a circle within there with stone and plants? but that’s added yet further questions?

So can I do this? can I get better equipment for better and faster results? can I design it? do I get someone to do it? how much time going forward do I want to spend on the garden. No doubt there will be a part 2 of this story, and perhaps I need to look at other peoples gardens and wonder how much time they spend? In reality, I need a better solution as I want it good for the kids, but don’t have the time to spend on it.