Garden refurb idea

Hi everyone,
I am very new to gardening and I find very little time due to my work schedule and attached are the pictures of the mess in my garden but now I am serious about sorting this out and every year by the time I finish removing weed my motivation for gardening disappears but I have a plan with the budget in hand I need an advice from you experienced people.

My plan is to remove the weed from from the garden and in the picture in the space A, B and C, I will lay Weed control fabric and either I can stuff garden gravel by having bricks boundary so the gravel stays in place or by having Weed control fabric I can lay garden slabs and in between them I can stuff gravel.
This way I can manage only areas 1, 2 and 3 for gardening and rest I can use for keeping pots etc.
Sorry my plan might sound poor but with the budget and research I cannot think of anything else for DIY project.
Can you guys tell me if the plan for having gravel over the top for weed control fabric would work to control weed and also the gravel remains in place?
Also in the middle I am planning to have fake grass but right now my worry is to sort out the weed as its really a big problem every year.
Thank you everyone in advance really appreciate your time to read and help

 

I haven't got gravel but from gardens I see with it, it never stays in place, you have to rake it over to keep it looking tidy ... and dirt collects in it and weed seeds can root into that, so I don't think it's easy to look after. Also cats like to use it as their toilet.
Maybe slabs would be better but not with gravel between them, I would cement them down. They're easy to clean with a pressure washer or scrubbing brush.
Your areas for 'gardening' look very small.

 

I'm quite pro-gravel myself having replaced my (always poor-looking) small lawn with gravel and a central circle of paving. You do need to get the basics right - I got some landscapers to do the hard work but the key things are:

• Build a retaining edge to prevent the gravel wandering as Michael H says - mine is a line of old London Stock bricks set end to end and fixed with concrete
• Compress the soil with a whacker (don't know the technical term!) and then yes put down a weed-suppressing membrane; you can always slit it later if you want to plant things within the gravel.
• When the gravel goes in that needs to be whacked down too.
• Mine is 20mm Cheshire Pink gravel, not expensive and the neighbourhood cats avoid it - I gather the stones are too big to encourage them
• I do rake it over occasionally but mostly it stays put. I've had a few weeds come up this spring (there were none the first couple of years), mostly dog violets which have sown themselves *in* the gravel and are easy to pull out
• Encourage plants to grow from the borders over the edges to soften the effect

This website has good practical advice on creating gravel surfaces:pavingexpert.com

And here is a shot of one corner to give you an idea:

 

Hi. I would be tempted to do it the other way around (from your original suggestion). I would put gravel down over the concreted middle section. I would dig over all of the border and plant a few low maintenance nice shrubs. I would then just plant some spring bulbs in autumn, then summer bedding later in the gaps. This way you won’t have huge outlays, and you won’t have done anything too permanent. If you decide later on you get more into gardening you can expand. For the size you have to tend you would definitely be able to maintain this with only a couple of hours weeding /tending a week in the growing season only. I know this as I’m not hugely experienced but have worked full time with young kids and managed such a set up. Good luck in whatever you decide!

 

Hello Ali, welcome to GC. You've got the potential there to make a nice little garden! Definitely go with weed-suppressing membrane. It comes in brown as well as green, which makes it useful for covering a cleared, dug area which you then plant with easy maintenance shrubs. As long as the soil is prepared reasonably, the shrubs would soon grow to cover the membrane. In conjunction with fake grass, the ultimate low-maintenance garden!