Slow and steady - Beginner :-)

Also I have one of these and the colours are lovely throughout the year although I have mine in a pot. It likes acid soil but is happy in shade.
Leucothoe Scarletta (&s;Zeblid&s;) | dog hobble [Scarletta] Shrubs/RHS Gardening

 

I think the problem with area C next to the hedge is down to the hedge taking all the moisture. The lack of light will also have a bearing.
Personally l would cut my losses, tidy up the edge and maybe just lay stones. (Put some edging in to stop the stones migrating on to the lawn).
You could perhaps consider placing some large pots on it as a decorative feature. If your budget doesn't stretch to that perhaps Freecycle or Gumtree etc might produce something.
Or maybe consider a bug hotel ? As it doesn't get direct sun, the creepy crawlies won't cook .

 

The unknown shrub in 'J' is a Cytisus - broom.
The plants all seem to be leaning a bit - presumably to get more light. Brooms certainly like a good bit of sun/light, and they're happy in poorer soil. There seems to be another tree in there - to the far right - what is that? There might be too much shade there for the broom to be happy, but they aren't happy about being moved.
The area 'F' will be dry due to the shrubs, and the grass - it's all competiton unless you get reliable, consistent rainfall. If there's neighbouring planting on the other side of the fence, that adds to it. It would be a case of picking ground covering planting that suits that. Area 'E' could easily be the same, plus the shade of the trees adding to the mix.

Your other weed from last year looks like bindweed, which can be difficult to get rid of. It's usually a weedkiller job, and the easiest way is to put a cane/pole in beside the plant, let it climb, then spray it. It can help to enclose it in a plastic bag to prevent any drift onto other plants. It may also need several applications. The only alternative is to keep cutting it back and/or trying to dig it out.

 

Lawn cut :-)
Seeing the amount of cat poop in the flower areas on the left and right of the garden is depressing. I really need to get some plants in there soon!

 

I’ve put a reply for you on the cat deterrent discussion if it is of any help. I’ve been there myself

 

I'd do mine if the rain stayed off long enough for it to dry out a bit.
I see you've pruned your Cornus too, well done.
Cats can be a problem. I will sometimes put spikes into a newly cultivated area just to discourage them, otherwise I try not to let it bother me too much (easier said sometimes, I know).

 

Thank you for the reply. The broom (odd name for the plant ) is literally the only plant my wife has bought and has grown plenty and looks great. Which compared to every plant I've bought and managed to kill off!

Alas. It is odd it's leaning. But the lean is actually away from the sun. I was thinking, do I get another and plant it next to it, create a kinda barrier??
The plant to the right. I 'think' it's called a red robin? Similar to the others on the opposite side of the garden.

 

Area e. It does get plenty of sun in the evening!! The sun is direct on that area.
Just no idea what to do. Do I increase the size of the boarder, to a more raised bed?

 

Area f has the dog wood, and at the moment a really pretty in bloom tree. I'm going to remove and place back the stone to hide all the plastic sheeting poking through .

 

Re area E, my personal take is that I would leave it as is, that is don't turn it into a raised bed (unless you really want to that is !).
The Red robins don't look too bad from what I can make out, probably a good feed and a tidy up when the new foliage starts turning red to green will do the trick.

I would start by taking out any small plants that are in there and deciding which ones you want to keep. There's a small green mound on the back right that looks interesting.
Either keep them in a trug or somesuch, or temporarily plant them someplace else.

Anything you don't want to keep can probably be composted, but it looks as though you've got a couple of clumps of Spanish bluebells on the lawn side of the edging, and they can be invasive.
Then dig it over, adding some well rotted manure or compost, tidy up the edging and let it settle for a week or so. Then you've got a blank canvas which is easier than trying to re-imagine it with the existing plants in place.
There are loads of plants that love a sunny position, and good drainage such as lavenders, salvias, rose campion, campanula, achillea.
I know how it feels when you look at an area and are overwhelmed by what to do with it, but starting with clearing and preparing it is a bit like decluttering a drawer or cupboard.
Hope this makes sense, it's getting late and it's been a long day

 

The common name of broom, for Cytisus, is simply because the stems were tied together and attached to a handle, and used as one. I've never tried it though!
It's probably been getting crowded in summer by the canopy of the tree it's beside, so it's leaning to get more light. However, they aren't deep rooted, so they can get dislodged quite easily. I lost my white one a couple of years ago during rough spring weather.

I was meaning the large, bare trunk to the right in your pic, rather than the one in behind. Those are Photinias - Red Robin is just the variety name. They also take up a lot of moisture, so with those all in the same bed, you may need plants which like those drier, shadier conditions.

If area E is difficult, it's possibly due to the shrubs again - all of those take up a lot of moisture, so if you aren't in a properly wet area, that means you need ground cover that will cope with that. It might mean keeping those shrubs pruned a bit more, or even taking one of them out. If it only gets sun later in the day, that's classed as semi shade, and all the amounts of sun are gauged by summer conditions, so, for example, something east facing which loses sun around late morning, would be classed as semi shade, even though it may get virtually nothing through winter. Same with something west facing where the sun would be later in the day rather than early. There are always other factors as well like shrubs/trees, walls/fences and buildings which can create that shade, so take that into consideration when choosing any plants for a site.
It can seem complicated, and it often comes down to experimenting. If you pick easy plants to start with [hardy geraniums are always a good bet] that means you can get a better feel for it all, and can then start picking a few different plants later on. Adding lots of organic matter as @AnniD says, is always helpful for keeping the soil healthy

 

I've been inspired by this..(I heard it on a podcast)
'Reading about how to do the thing isn't doing the thing. Reading about how other people did the thing isn't doing the thing. Reading this post isn't doing the thing.

The only thing that is doing the thing is doing the thing'

With a newborn at home, I'm learning to tackle my garden in small, manageable chunks (doing the thing, rather than thinking about the thing, or stressing that I haven't done the thing).
First up: Area F (seemed like an easy place to start......) The hated dogwood is gone, but now what to do with the jumble of leftover stones. I want just some fresh stones (gray slate maybe?) - and the weed membrane replace so you can't see it through the stones with the weeds.

• Levelling Woes: None of the ground here is level – left to right or fence to grass. I'm fine with a slight slope away from the fence, but how to achieve it?"
• Tree Roots: These tree roots are sitting high in the soil (which makes levelling down difficult, so I'll have in incline away from the grass to the fence)
• Stone Dilemma: I could clean the old stones (I think???), but is it worth it - and how time consuming? I'm tempted by fresh gray slate instead.If so, what to do with the old stone?
• Making a Defined Space: "I've got spare slabs to edge off this area vertically, and some plastic edging that'll separate the grass from the stone - I didn't want a proper border between the grass and stone - I'll sort that next week.

 

I would rake off the gravel if you don't want it - it'll be handy for top dressing pots or other areas.
If you're putting slabs in vertically, that will define the area, but you can just put the slate [if you're getting that] on top, and taper it in a gradual incline or decline, to blend the areas together. It's also worth making a small space between the grass and the slabs, and putting some slate in there, or concreting it or something similar. That makes edging the grass easier, and it also means you can have some plants along the edge of the bed which will trail over, and help to disguise the uneven surfaces.

A mix of easy perennials and some groundcovering plants will also break the area up, and make it more attarctive year round.
The alternative to that is doing a type of double raised bed - a small area around the main trunk of the tree, so that nothing you add will go in there and cover the trunk, and then a main, outer one which can be filled in to level the area off more.

 

Thank you :-)

So I've dug all the stone out (I've now got a mound of stone behind the child's playhouse)

Annoying there are more roots really towards the front towards the grass. Making levelling (I assume) pretty much impossible.

Towards the grass, my wife very much agrees we should have a row of flowers between that and the gravel/stone etc.

Really. Im a little bit unsure what to do. I genuinely thought I'd remove the old stone. Level it, put some new membrane down and cover with some fresh new slate etc.

Part of me thinks. And it's probably too big a job and costly? Do I put some decking there - raised against the grass?

 

You could certainly do that - a low level deck is quite easy to do yourself, but if you do, use the best quality materials you can.
You would just leave a large gap around the trunk of the tree to allow it room to thrive.
The only disadvantage of doing that is - decking is best in a sunny area, as it gets very slippery in shade. You'd need to be sure it's a suitable site, and that other tree will cast a lot of shade through summer, when you may want to use it most. It's also good if you can tie it in successfully with other hard landscaping, and the garden in general.

You could put a layer of slate in the area, and not bother with membrane. Slate is fairly good at weed suppressing, and also keeps moisture in well. It wouldn't really affect the roots near the surface, especially if there's a small edging of slabs, and it would be a fairly easy, much cheaper fix.