Road to a nice Garden???

I'm so fed up of my garden. I haven't done much to it since I moved in 3 years ago (other than cut the crass, obv). This is the first house I have ever owned and its really dawning on me how hard it is to keep things nice.

The garden is quite small, ad actually at the front of the house, but fenced and everyone treats them like back gardens. More than 1/4 of it is decking, which is painted a very dark brown and had a pointless little fence round it. In the winter part of the pointless fence blew over, so we decided to pull it down and open it up. Most of it came down easily but the posts themselves are sunk, I've been on an hour trying to saw three of them down. Got there in the end but I'm now shattered.

We started to pressure wash the decking and half the paint came away. Awesome, thought I, I can paint it lighter. Bought lighter paint (rookie mistake) now the other half of the paint just will not shift.

I'm havign a royal wedding party next week and it MUST be sorted by then. GRRRR

Oh no poor you! Paint it dark again
We bought our house because of the size of the garden, it's quite big, even though it was overgrown & full of trees. We spent mega bucks having it all changed & new patio, walls, fences, borders with lights in the walls etc.. The lights are broke & the patio has sunk & the grass just won't grow!!
We are getting the patio & lights fixed & need it done for the weekend too as my parents are coming, but the builder didn't turn up today so I have been laying slabs with hub, on my hands & knees in sand with a rubber mallet

So you are not alone