Oh, my, it sounds like a lot of work. And a puppy along with the horses!!

I might find one bed with nothing you want to keep, remove stuff and heal in your plants for the winter or even find an out-of-the-way spot, lay down cardboard, get a truckload of topsoil, compost or mulch and heal in. Mulch well. Years ago I moved into a house that needed foundation work, siding, roofing, etc and so I couldn't plant near the building. I just plopped all the plants into a bed away from the house zone that I cleared of weeds etc, and then mulched well. Plants in pots, even in an unheated building, don't do well in the winter here. YMMV since you are in a warmer zone.

The hardware store will have a good selection of hooks, etc for screwing to the walls to hang tools and the inexpensive Rubbermaid shelves do well for storing stacks of pots. My Rm shelves also hold containers that each hold a theme like watering tools (hose washers, sprinklers, hose ends, etc.) or trowels and other small digging tools or clippers. A 5 gallon bucket fastened to the wall holds hoses looped over the outside.

Best wishes for settling in and making the place your own.

It sounds like you've got lots of work - and fun! - ahead of you.... Pictures....? Puppy and horse pictures too please :-)

Reclaiming an overgrown or neglected garden is never an easy task. I'm in the process of doing something very similar but on a much smaller scale (thank goodness!! I'm not getting any younger!). But it is also very rewarding, especially when you have salvaged an area and can see the change and improvement :-)

My usual recommendation to my clients when encountering this issue is to focus on one area at a time, often the most visible or of the highest priority, like the entry way, so as not to become overwhelmed by the scope of the project and then become discouraged.

Puppies can help!! Nothing like a dog in the garden, "working" alongside you, to make the time go by faster and the work somehow seem lighter!! I personally cannot imagine gardening without my dog present by my side or watching from nearby :-)

It has been over thirty years since I had to reclaim a landscape. I remember it fondly but I was thirty years younger then. Try to enjoy the process. Don't try to get everything done at once. I'd love to see pictures before and after and share the process vicariously.

Oh, I like peaceofmind's suggestion to take enough photos of the before so we (and you) can appreciate the after.

Ah, I am a few years into doing this myself...and have veered from despair, to delight with all possible states in.between. Baby steps...but if I have just one tiny suggestion which, for a small outlay in time and effort is truly worthwhile - plant a few bulbs where you will see them from the house. Just a few dozen and you are right back in the gardening game...and there are few finer expressions of optimism than the deferred pleasures of bulb planting. Do it now - even in rough grass - a handful of narcissus (nothing eats them).

I am already an impatient gardener...and all the advice ranged from doing nothing for a whole year...to taking care of the main structures - tree planting, then shrubs...all long before a single flower sown...and true, these are all the correct ways of going about things...but you know...we are gardeners.

didnt you promise us.. pix!!!!!

i would start around the deck or patio.. for some fast instant gratification when relaxing ...

and then just start working in one direction or another ...

while relaxing.. just ID projects .... that can be done.. for instant impact ... one weekend projects ...

just keep in mind.. its a 3 to 5 year plan ... relish what you can get done ... not what didnt get done ...

one of the best things i did.. in year two.. was install spigots around the yard ... you only need to be pulling hundreds of feet of hose around to understand the beauty of such ...

the point being.. think about the backbones of the future.. not only in regard to the plants.. but also the hardware ... think paths.. or flow of the garden..

and make sure your design involves mowing the lawn .... especially if you will be going toward a riding lawnmower ... its not a great design.. if after you mow.. you have to pull out the push mower.. and then the weedwhip ... the perfect designing involves only one lawn cutting tool ...

pix.. pix.. pix.. ken

"...relish what you can get done ... not what didnt get done ..."

HAHA you obviously don't know me very well, Ken -- no doubt all I will be able to see is what is NOT done...

Last night discovered the shower stall is leaking, water coming out of the grout on the other side of the stall door = major repair probably needed - there goes my $$ for landscaping &!^#@!!

no doubt all I will be able to see is what is NOT done...

==>>> you are on acreage now .... you are going to have to accept what can be actually accomplished .... do keep in mind.. that planning for the following years work ... is accomplishing something... that cant be seen ...

ken

Oh, it is all such a vast change that you will absolutely find yourself and your priorities changing almost weekly. I recall some of my initial pronouncements and plans and can only be amazed at my utter naivety - a lifetime of gardening behaviours, fond beliefs and hopeful plans systematically crushed and mangled...but it is also astonishingly liberating since you are so far out of your comfort zone, you are basically blameless in any intervention- and one of the really good things about acreage is being able to perfect the long-distance, myopic, vaguely impressionist view instead of swooping down on every little irritant under your nose. Weeds, for example - it is laughable that you will eradicate even the tiniest percentage of them doing all the usual hand-weeding, hoeing and grubbing out - but you are now in charge of a 'landscape' - absolutely not a figment of perfect horticultural artifice. Think in tree time.

Mxk3, after I wrote my note above I read an older entry of yours written in July where you had severe cold feet about even buying this property. In fact, the deal had fell through and you were glad. What happened in the meantime? And you said you didn't have a working camera so I guess we'll not see pictures? Boooo hoo.

This is a different property --- SO GLAD we ended up backing out of the other deal, we both *love* the house and property that we ended up with. Life works out that way sometimes, doesn't it :0)

I'll see if I can manage to snap a few pics with the remaining battery life on that old piece of cr*p camera I have, if I can even find it (like I said -- still have boxes to unpack...).

you can unpack boxes all winter long.. you cant snap pix after a few feet of MI snow ... lol ...

one trick ... think about your first garden show in say... 5 years.. think about how you would give said tour.. how will people flow around the yard ... you saw my paths ... thru the woods.. and around my islands ... it was not a one season project .... but the basic design was made during the first year or two ... as it evolved ....

ken

ps: in fact ... lol.. i have packed boxes from when i moved in 16 years ago ... rotflmbo ...

But the camera is in one of the boxes...

lol.... ken

Camp: I like your suggestion of planting some bulbs. I think I'll stop at the local nursery this weekend and pick up some daffs, tulips, and - my favorite - hyacinths. Not too many - just a couple dozen that I can quickly plant on a nice sunny fall day. DH worked his butt off yesterday digging out picker bushes in the pasture - one part of the pasture is over-run with them. The pasture needs A LOT of work, we will start tackling the renovation full-force next spring. For now he's working on the pickers, still has a way to go...