Advice needed for a complete novice!

Hi everyone, I'm desperate for some advice! I live in a mid terrace rented property with a fairly small garden. Bordering both sides is a hedge rather than fence panels. The bottom of the garden is getting out of control and I'm getting pretty desperate.

The person who rented the property before us planted a whole bunch of roses, which wouldn't be so bad except they're the rambling kind. Consequently they are getting tangled up in everything else and no matter how much I try and cut them back I can't stop them taking over everything. I would love a nice tidy, colourful garden but I'm not sure what to plant and how to stop these darn roses taking over. Any advice would be very welcome

 

, sorry I can't help you much with your dilemma.
Others will soon help I'm sure, good luck with it anyway.
Gardening is the best adventure I've ever been on

 

Hi @Loki, and no problem

 

Hi, I think you should check what you're allowed to do before thinking about chopping down established plants.
If you're renting you may have problems in the future
I don't know anything about roses but if I was you I'd just trim them and see how they go.

 

Our landlady is fairly laid back and pretty much said we could do what we wanted in the garden, with the exception of one particular plant that she wanted to keep. Trouble is I'm trimming the darn things constantly and they're starting to smother everything else apart from a massive camellia on one side of the garden!

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Susie. How many roses are there?

 

Can you upload some pics so we can get a better understanding?

 

@Sheal to be honest I have no idea how many roses there are, I know there are a couple of standard rose bushes, but the rambling ones I can't even find out where they start lol.

@kazzawazza I will attempt to post some pics this weekend, although the heavens have opened this morning. At the moment you can't actually see the roses because of the weeds. It's when you start getting the weeds up that you realise these roses are wrapped around everything

 

Woo has dealt with the problem for you Susie, his knowledge of roses and how to look after them is amazing. Good luck with the pruning.

 

Thank you very much @wiseowl for the advice, I will see what I can do!

As promised here are a few pics of my garden as it is at the moment - highly embarrassing the state it's got into! Please excuse the poor quality, it's not the worlds greatest camera (and the photographer's not up to much either!)

 

Don't be embarrassed, you didn't plant it. I would actually like to have that border. It's funny how critical we can be of our gardens, but someone else thinks it's lovely.

 

aah thank you @Oldtyke, I wouldn't mind it so much if half of it wasn't weeds lol. Apart from the camellia on the left, an azalea which is in front of the camellia somewhere (although you can't exactly see it at the moment), some aquilegias on the right and the rose bushes which are taking over I think everything else is pretty much weeds, although I'm happy to be corrected!

 

In my last garden, I was mortified that it had got away from me , (I was waiting for a hip replacement) All I could see was the weeds, but everyone who went past our gate said how pretty it looked. Now I have a postage stamp. There are no weeds, but my plants need to mature as they are all new, and I'm champing at the bit! That is all part of gardening,it is a constantly changing canvas. We will always see our flaws, our best plant combinations will come by accident. But it is a compelling obsession!