The never ending garden project....

The other area that something has happened in is the meadow/orchard area - a friend has done some work on their garden and had a few fruit trees that were no longer needed so we gave them a new home and the start of the orchard
I also bought few rosa rugosa as hedging whips but have planted them out individually to line the pathway down to the centre of the meadow (all protected with chicken wire as those rabbits will eat anything!)

There is this odd circular stone thing in the middle of the grass, no idea what it is but found there is paving around the bottom of it so decided to make a feature with a path down to and hopefully will get the grass cleared from the paving one day!

 

You've got a big job on your hands there DD, I am glad I don't have rabbits.

 

Yes! We have around 7 odd acres of which roughly 2 are garden. I would have preferred 6 of pasture and 1 of garden! The way the land lies it would be quite difficult to turn some of the garden into pasture altho as I am getting ancient bits of the garden will no doubt begin to look like unkempt meadow in time.
My latest "project" of turning what was an area of commercial kennels and paths back into pasture (about 1/4 acre) has been a complete nightmare. It would have been much easier to build houses all over it. Nearly finished but just about killed me trying to get the land even vaguely suitable to support grass. This is the 2nd season I've been clearing.
What I would be inclined to do @day dreamer would be to electric fence (cheap option ) off a certain area and see if you can borrow some sheep to graze the land down, they'll eat just about anything. You can play about/keep moving the fencing to decide which area you want as proper garden and which you want either for grazing animals or making into a wood/orchard, leave wild. In Scotland you can get grants to plant woodland if you are classed as a small holding as we are. Maybe the same in England?
Unless you want to be working/toiling in your garden pretty much full time any size of garden over about an acre is a huge amount of work to keep looking good and it is easy for it to become a bit of a millstone rather than a pleasure. I know someone who bought a beautiful house with lots of land and she turned the vast majority of the land into formal garden. Big mistake and she admits it now, the planning and planting was fun, the maintenance of what she created, not so much. All this said you look to have a great space to play with and create something lovely.

 

Wow!

I've only just found this thread, and am rather envious! I love the bell on the side of the house - presumably to call people in from the land for meals?!

I think @silu's idea of borrowing sheep to graze an area of it is a good one. It would free you up to concentrate on a smaller area.

When I started working on this garden, a mere 1/2 acre, as others have also recommended, I concentrated near the house, and then on "focal points" that the eye was drawn to. So for me it was a strange angular bed, now imaginatively called the "angle bed", that we cleared of brambles, birch saplings and nettles, to fill with spring bulbs, and centred with a fruit tree.
In your garden, I would be tempted to work at that stone feature with surrounding paving, and then mow a path from the area currently mown/controlled to encourage curious people to "explore".

Our garden is also on a slope, and people naturally look down. With the house 2/3 down the plot, this means that the top of the garden is ignored. So my latest endeavour was to put a pond at the top of the garden, which is already drawing people up... it looks as if the house is near the top for you, which is a bonus.

A thought - how do you access the house and garden? A drive? Maybe working out from that with focal points?

Great idea to start an orchard, and as @silu said, maybe a deciduous woodland or coppice? If you space the fruit trees well, you can under plant with fruit bushes, e.g. Black currant, red currant, gooseberries... not that you need to save space!

If money is tight, then Aldi or Lidl plants and fruit trees are not a bad place to start, although the fruit trees will be on dwarfing rootstock. Just don't necessarily expect the tree to be what it says it is! Our "sour cherry" in the centre of the angle bed has very plummy fruit!! The roses etc are good, and excellent value for money.

Anyway, my ol' bones are aching, just imagining the amount of work that you have ahead of you. In short: sheep or a ride-on mower!

 

@Loofah yup the whole 6 acres! I didn't realise Monty's was 2 acres, that kinda gives me some perspective and makes me think eek!

I've thought about the sheep idea, the only thing that puts me off is that I don't like sheep - its the devil eyes! But it is something to think about, as it would save a lot of work, thank you @silu

Deffo not going to go down the lots of formal garden route - there will be a formal area by the house and a veg plot, but more perennial veg than annual, and the rest will hopefully slowly become woodland/coppice (totally going to steal the sissinghurst nuttery look, despite the fact its probably way more work than I realise!), meadow (one cut a year!) and willow/reed bed down by the river, so figuring on as low maintenance as I can get it with a good amount of shrubs (mostly hydrangea as I just adore them) and trees

We have a driveway at the top which forms a sort of semi circle in front of the house, which currently has 12 or so rather large leylandi making a screen for the road, but they are super ugly so will be going (just had the quote from the tree surgeon!) and thinking of replacing with a bunch of virburnum as I like the evergreen and the flowers they have, then just filling it out with hakonechloa underneath

Aldi/lidl is totally a must, always amazed at the prices for their stuff, and not too bad - just have to find one near us, morrisons also is alright for plants

I'll be happy if this year I can clear the terrace, the path in front of the one and only flower border and clear and plant up the 'tank garden' (more imaginative naming! Its the bed with the gas tank in it! )

 

here's a maps screenshot, not great quality but gives an idea of the space - house on the top left side and river on the right, there are some trees along the river and then the oblong bit with a different texture heading back towards to the house is the overgrown pond

 

It looks as tho there has been some sort of barrier/fence around the house before in a sort of semi circle. The area inside the semi circle looks a good size for a garden while the rest could be field? Ok so you don't like sheep. how about goats? bit smelly tho! I'd have thought people would have bitten your hand off for grazing ponies/horses. The snag with those is they will make a mess of the ground during winter (maybe you could only offer summer grazing) and you would need good fencing, I wouldn't trust just electric. The other down side would be the owners of the ponies/horses would probably, should, check on their animals on a daily basis which might encroach on your privacy and you would need a water supply. There are rules and regs re animals drinking from rivers because of pollution concerns which you'd need to check on.However, I know quite a few people who rent out grazing land and you can make a few bob out of it or alternatively some rent out their land in exchange for the renters doing work around their properties which can work quite well. The trouble if you leave land to just get on with it is that it ends to get in a right mess with invasive weeds and will turn into a jungle in no time. Our countryside doesn't look like it does by being left entirely to it's own devises.
Re the trees you are wanting cut down (I don't like Leylandii either). Just check you are legally allowed to take the whole lot down in a oner. The tree surgeon should know tho. Depending on their size there are limits to the number of trees you are allowed to cut down, well there definitely is in Scotland. Land is monitored by satellites so it isn't just that easy to take down a whole load of trees should you wish too! friend got caught taking down 10 large trees at her farm without the necessary permission and we got queried after we put in a 25mtr x 75mtr sand arena which you can't even see from the road....big brother is watching you!

Be a little selective with these. I bought what looked like quite nice Rhododendrons from Lldl a few years back. They were white flowering when I bought them. They had used Ponticum as a root stock and the whole lot reverted to hellish purple in a couple of years. I also bought 3 Magnolia Stellata from Aldi a few years back. Well god only knows what their root stock is but they have grown enormous and I had to move 2 of them which they did not like. Ok, I like you have a huge amount of space so can accommodate plants which grow large but I was not expecting these to grow at least 8 ft tall and spread about 10ft each

 

Looks great. Such a big space to work with. If you want to fill a large area with attractive plants that will be low maintenance then you could perhaps consider a wildflower section or two which is also great for wildlife. I bought some stuff from these guys

We supply Wildflower Seed, Plugs & Bulbs for Meadows - Meadow Mania

I see you are also considering an orchard. Great choice from here and their website is very useful for helping to select trees based on season, use, etc. You have enough room there to get some proper full size trees.

Fruit tree varieties list - search for fruit trees using 50+ different attributes

I went a bit fruit tree daft when I bought my house last year. Obviously they take several years to get fully established so it was one of the first things I wanted to get done.