Trying to find a gardener

When I bought a house with a big garden, I knew I had a challenge on my hands. I am not a natural gardener! And the garden basically was grass with raised beds. I can cope with grass. The raised beds were a different matter. Quite a lot of them were empty, and I had to do something with them. And those that weren't empty were a maintenance challenge.

I tried to deal with both types. But I find it difficult! I struggled to design anything that looks good. And I often don't know what to do with the plants I have. Should I cut them down seriously at some point in the year? Normally I just leave things to their own devices. I have a box bush that I trim every year; even I know that that is sort of the done thing. But everything else? 

Some of the raised beds just look like they were designed by a complete idiot. And the raised beds with the plum tree and the various berries became a bit of a hybrid after I pulled out the raspberries/loganberries. I suppose I will have to do the same with the other berries! Berries are nice, but the bed looks awful. But what to put there instead?

Ugly raised bed

Also ugly

I had already asked my sister to scamper through the garden and tell me what she thought would be a good idea. I still have these notes! But I am a bit hesitant to implement them. It might be easy if you have talent. I don't. And at some point I decided it wasn't worth the energy. Let's have a professional do this!

The next step, of course, is finding yourself a professional. That should be doable, right? But I struggle. My first port of call was a gardener who lives in town. He didn't seem to respond to my enquiry. Then I spoke with Kate; she recommended someone else. I contacted them as well. They didn't answer. Then I spoke with the neighbour, who also had a recommendation. I contacted this one as well, and we even got so far as to have an appointment, but the day before he phoned me to say he was too busy to take on my garden.

This was not going well. But then I had a brainwave, and checked my spam box. There was a message from the very first gardener I had contacted! And he said he didn't want to do the work. He was available for advice, but I was hoping that someone would actually do the work in communication with me. Luckily he had a recommendation for that as well. So there I went again! Pinged off another email. This time I will keep a close eye on my mailboxes (including spam box), but given that this was an email address and not an online contact form, I think my mailbox will realise that this is real. I really hope I can get this project off the ground!