Strangely the garden started to improve when I stopped "gardening" as such, and basically just went to a policy of minimalist intervention and growing the things that want to grow, rather than growing the things I want to grow.
I've always followed that approach and was getting there (kids, dogs and border mowing spouse excepted) when I was diagnosed with CFS 12 years ago. I'd spent most of my spare time in my late teens and early twenties setting my mum's up to do just that and hers still only needs minimal intervention and occasional replacement of things that reach end of life 30 years on.
When I was physically unable to continue getting the basics done there were beds dug and some evergreen shrubs and hardy perennials in the back, and I'd seeded the naked parts with meadow flower seed (no grasses) what's happened since is the couch grass in the lawn has steadily encroached on the biggest bed at the end aided and abetted by OH just mowing 'the grass' so the more grass there was, the more he mowed, chopping down anything that was still fighting and on more than one occasion strimming the entire top bed apart from the plants that were big and obvious and I wasn't able to do more than nibble away at it for pretty much the last decade so we're left with a bed at the side that's not terrible, just overwhelmed with mature Alchemilla, Echinops and a tall Cotoneaster along with a couple of roses, the aquilegias then Bergenia, some Hosta and ferns near the house in the gutter soakaway field that's perpetually damp. I removed a huge green hellebore from the margin between the wet and normal part last year because it was about 4 feet across , boring, and killing the grass that already has enough to contend with being in the shade of the house most of the time -that's the bit I'm slotting more plants into , there's a Hydrangea my youngest got me for mother's day 2019 and I've put some Astilbe on the wet side along with Geranium Rozanne, Scabious and Sage on the dry side so far. In the top bed I've got Geranium Oxonianum , Crocosmia Lucifer, Euonymus Emerald and Gold, Cornus Alba which has layered itself all over, Mahonia, a large Lavender Hidcote that's not in good nick from competing with couch grass for years and a Rosemary in a tub that is very sad looking from being repeatedly blown over and not picked up when I wasn't around to stand it back up.
So, I've got some bones, some of which need remedial pruning and might not like it much (Mahonia and Euonymus), all of which need taking out and replanting just so we can get all the couch grass out (while looking out for anything that's managed to hunker down and defy the grass) and then the big bed needs filling with whatever I can get my hands on that is either grows like a weed round here, is a Derbyshire native or native adjacent so it doesn't ever get like that again
