Allotments 4 All

Just waiting to move into our first house. Yipee!
The garden has been left for 8-10 months as it was a probate sale, its about 25ft wide 60ft long ( excluding the patio areas).  The grass is about 3ft high and the bramble bushes are beginning to creep along, and the flowerbeds have dissapeared below the weeds (yes its a jungle!!)  :o
I would love you to tell me where to start, as i am going to start and tackle it the bank holiday weekend. All comments are gratefully recieved,  Thankyou x

Don't rush.  Pace yourself and don't expect to achieve a lot at once.  It's got to be fun remember  :)  The hardest bit probably will be the clearance of all those weeds which probablywould be best strimmed down so you can see what you've got. You can then think about what you want to keep and the bits you want to eliminate completely or remodel.  It might be a good idea to start near the patio so you can sit down after a hard day with a drink and see what you've achieved.

Good luck with it.  If you have enough space you could have a veggie plot screened off from the rest of the garden say with fruit bushes etc  :)

as your name suggests, kelly, mow/scythe the long grass off, and start your compost heap.
check what amount of fruit the brambles are bearing - if they are full of promise i would wait with cutting them back after the harvest :)
do you want to grow some vegetables as well? think about where the best location would be for beds, then dig up the turf, turn upside down or stick on your compost heap. depending on the quality of the soil (clay, loam or sand) get some soil improvers in (compost, humous, manure) and you are ready for some autumn planting of overwintering veg.
get some seed catalogues (organic catalogue, kings seed etc) and check them out. might give you some ideas too.

little and often - dont go overboard on the weekend and just tidy up and establish what is there before turning 'ballistic' on all the green stuff :o ;D

happy gardening

Thanks for your advise, i have put a picture on from the end of the patio up, the only consolation is there is an intact greenhouse!!
I want to start a veggie patch and i would also like to get some advice about returning the grass back to a good condition-maybe even green!! any advice welcome thanks!

From your picture I would guess that at least part of the grass area was originally lawn.  I would hire a strimmer for a day and cut it all down as close to the ground as possible.  It will probably be soaking wet underneath, but give it a few days to dray off, then start mowing it with your mower set on high.  It will look absolutely horrible for the rest of this summer and autumn, but next spring it will recover and you will be able to see whether any patches need reseeding.

What you don`t want to keep as lawn you can start to dig over, burying the turf face down at the bottom, and removing any obvious weed roots (docks, thistles, dandelions etc.) as you go.

Draw a scale plan of the garden and spend a bit of time deciding and marking what you want to put where before you do anything actually constructive - it will save a good deal of time later.

Phone Ground Force and tell them you are going away for the weekend.