Horrible Overgrown Flowerbeds, What to Do?

You need to soecific tools. And bins to put the cuttings in.

My dad's back gardenooks $hit too if that's any consolation - snakesheads sflowerscmay be choked in it.

Will add photos later here

Wild Garlic must be the second most invasive plant after Japanese Knotweed !If you try dig it out you can go down two foot but a tiny piece the size of a pearl will have the whole bed crammed with it in another year or two.You have your work cut out there .Might be better removing large zones of the soil and plants and getting in some very big bags of topsoil .

Note however that the real expert gardeners are now being far more tolerant if not actually encouraging weeds .Having roots growing down into the soil is far better than leaving it bare

is it actual wild garlic or three-cornered leek, which my garden is infested with? I think either way it's a bugger to get rid off - I dug over one of my beds and removed as many of the little bulbs as i could find. It was all back the following winter.

I fear you'll be wasting your time pulling the garlic as it will most likely break off at the ground and grow straight back from the bulbs, it either needs to be forked out getting all the tiny bulbs (nightmare as already said) or sprayed off with glyphosate which would probably need a few go's. There is no point in covering with soil, it will grow through it so needs to go before you consider other planting.

If you want to pull stuff start with the ivy, it's killing the hedge in the front and should be removed. There's also some spotted laurel growing in front of the house which are either seedlings or plants that were cut down to ground, they'd be perfectly fine there so i'd let them grow and just fork out the weeds.

Sounds about right, though I would wait until the shrubs are in before you put the woodchip on. As to the plants, what you choose will depend to some extent on how much work you are prepared to put in going forward. You may find after clearing and digging it that you have taken to this gardening business and get interested in what grows.

Also the amount of sun each part of the garden gets, if there are any very shady spots you will be looking for certain shrubs and plants, likewise if there are any very sunny spots. You could draw up a bit of a plan of what is going to be shrub bed, what is grass and what is paths etc, and which way they face.

Hydrangeas are great value for looking after themselves, flowering reliably and not needing a lot of attention. There are bigger ones that will make fair sized shrubs - and create weed free areas under them, and smaller ones about 50cm to a metre high that may be more in scale with the space.

Hebes are a bit short lived and need a bit of attention so they don't go straggly, but otherwise have a great variety of leaf colour and shape and make very effective cover. For plants rather than shrubs you can't do better than Heuchera (Coral Bells) for colourful leaves that need almost no care. For butterflies buddleia is great, once it is established cut it down ruthlessly each early spring and it will reward you with fresh growth and lots of flowers. It is very easy and very forgiving.

Decide what you want then buy those plants/shrubs. Don't be tempted to go to the garden centre and buy random things because they look nice, a lot of plants need coddling and minding, or special conditions. There are lots of plants that are easy and hardy and will get you started on gardening. First though you need an idea of what your final objective is, what kind of garden do you want and how much time do you want to give it.