One of my neighbors purchased a house that had been vacant for 7 years, and the garden not tended for many more. What she found was: A large area of blackberry thicket, out of which was growing and blooming 2 very old Madame Caroline Testout roses. They had climbed up a nearby plum tree to get light, and were also growing over the fence and onto the next door neighbor's roof of their one story house. A mature apricot tree right in the middle of the back yard - it was twisted and very old, but still bloomed and bore fruit. LOTS of volunteer trees - plums, eugenie, privet, and eucalyptus, to name a few. Also some huge pine trees on the perimeter, which had been there for ages. My garden was not abandoned, but little had been done to it for 20 years when we moved into our house. It had at least 50 surviving roses - most of the survivors were teas, hybrid wichuranas, or other really old roses. A couple of the teas had gotten huge - maybe 15 feet wide, and 8-9 feet tall. There were 5 surviving hybrid teas, but they had dwindled, and did not bloom (except for Cl La France, as noted below). The old old roses had gotten bigger, and bloomed a huge amount. Thornless (thank heavens!) blackberry had taken over an area at the back of the property about 20 ft square, and there was another area where volunteer fig and plum trees had made a sort of forest. That's where Cl La France had climbed up the trees, and was blooming and disporting itself in the canopy. Old bulbs were still coming up in the Spring, all over the garden. Jackie

We are usually very happy to let others use our house for parties, meetings, programs, etc. -- that's one of the main reasons we bought the space. And I like it that our friends feel free to ask. But that doesn't mean we always will say yes when someone asks. Others have given you good advice on how to say no nicely. I'm only posting, and saying what I did about our home, because I have a feeling I understand something that is going on here. You say you just moved into this terrific party home a few years ago. I am wondering -- based on our own experience when we moved into this house -- if at first you really loved being able to say yes and maybe even offered very broadly. (If you did, that wasn't a mistake; you don't have to feel like you were foolish or a chump.) But sometimes there comes a point where even the most generous and gracious hosts feel tired or like it's about time someone invited them for a change. If you are kind of feeling that, that's also okay! But what you want to avoid is expecting others to read your mind, or, worse, seeming like you are lashing out and suddenly considering everyone mooches because they accepted your hospitality. I have seen people really make themselves looks small when they did that. I particularly remember a guy who had (still has, I think) a cooking web site and news group where people posted recipes. There was no charge, but he asked for contributions. After a while, he decided to charge for subscriptions. Instead of just simply changing his policy, he went on a tirade about how ungrateful everyone was and said things like "You get paid for what YOU do, don't you? So why shouldn't I?" (It was particularly obnoxious given that all the "ingrates" he was addressing were the ones who supplied -- free -- a lot of his site's content.) The point is that you are certainly free to stop hosting group get-togethers and other people's parties. And you don't have to have a consistent policy, either -- you can host when you feel like it, and say no when you don't. Just trust me and don't send any kind of message of "I'm sick of all of you taking advantage of me." It would have been good if your friends had reciprocated hospitality better, but don't retroactively be a bad host by implying that you weren't giving your hospitality freely and happily in the first place.

Katie, the property is lovely! Welcome to the New Eng forum. Before doing anything else, I would walk around the property taking lots of photos. It will give you a record of where you started and so give you a way to measure progress, help you plan, and assist in IDing and keeping track of what is there now that might benefit from moving to another spot. IME, things that look fairly awful can often be trimmed back and replanted elsewhere and if appropriately positioned can become lovely plants. At my previous house I planted a wooded slope entirely with half-dead rhododendrons that were taken to the dump by a local wholesale nursery. I hard pruned them, planted them, and the current homeowner now has a maintenance-free area that is spectacular in spring when the rhodies are blooming, and quietly lovely the rest of the year as the native groundcovers have returned. Before planting, it was a log landing where logs were stockpiled and the log trucks were loaded. Plants can be surprisingly expensive, so any that you can save that might be useful either as a permanent plant or as a temporary placeholder should be kept. Also, being on a hill, bare ground won't be your friend. Besides the issues with weed seeds sprouting, you will find that any large precipitation events or snow melt will cause erosion, so ground will always need to be covered, either by plants or by a layer of leaves. So any hostas that you haven't thrown out, keep to plant in beds you have cleared, and then use leaves to mulch around them. It doesn't have to be a forever planting, but will be low maintenance and will reduce the amount of weeding you will have to do by blocking light. The leaves will make any weeds that do sprout easier to pull. You may also find that you like hostas if planted with other groundcovers and shade perennials rather than on their own. I would take photos of the vines and shrubs in your beds. Be sure to take at least one of the whole bush and one that shows a branch or two relatively close up. There is a Name that Plant forum where you can get them IDed and then you can decide if you can use them, and if not, the best way to remove them. I have two favorite tools for clearing brush and saplings: a pair of oversized adjustable pliers which I use to try pulling anything of less than 1/2" diameter, since if you get the roots out it can't resprout, and a super-duty weed whacker that has in addition to the string trimmer (which rarely gets used), two metal blades, one for softer stems like brambles, and one for woody stems up to 2" or so. After that DH gets out the chainsaw. Anything that I can't pull up by the roots with my pliers, I cut to the ground and use a squirt bottle of concentrated glysophate herbicide to put a thin line on the outer rim of the fresh cut surface just where the bark meets the wood. Sometimes I need to repeat this twice over the course of a couple of years, but that's usually enough to kill anything. Be sure to wear appropriate clothing, especially gloves and eye protection. I also wear long sleeves and pants since we have a lot of poison ivy, and when using power tools I use ear protection as well. You may find your lot too steep for a brush hog, which is essentially a large scale, heavy duty mower that can cut through brush. Some are walk behind, and we have a tractor-pulled brush hog. They are great in the right circumstance, but I think would be quite challenging to use on your property. I notice you have some groundcovers - photo three looks like it might be Vinca AKA periwinkle AKA myrtle, and you mentioned pachysandra. Neither are spectacular, but in the right setting such as used under shrubs, will help make borders that seem to fit your needs for low maintenance and will help provide a transition from lawn to woods. There are lots and lots of other groundcovers and low-maintenance shade perennials and shrubs you can use, and the combination of various shapes, textures and colors can give you a lovely garden. Here is Marie's, which is one of the most gorgeous shade gardens I've ever seen. She has a suburban lot that's smaller than yours but is planted border to border, and there is some lawn. Mine is more interspersed into the edges of my native woodlands. Native rhododendron hybrids on a shady slope This spot has almost full shade and has various groundcovers plus a mountain laurel and 2 rhododendrons, one evergreen and one deciduous. There are several other rhodies along this woodland edge, but I couldn't find a decent photo of it. This area I have planted with shade-tolerant deciduous flowering trees and shrubs and am slowly filling in with native groundcovers. Other than the grassy area it is all mulched with free wood shavings and leaves. (Please pardon the trays of potted seedlings which spent the winter here out of the way of the plow.) The two threads linked below have shade plant ideas, and you might well be able to get divisions of some of these plants at local plant swaps or from gardeners here who are thinning things out. Zone 6 Shade Garden plant help Easy shade-tolerant ground cover? Since you want lawn, I'd start by figuring out your areas of at least half day sun (preferably more) and designating those as lawn. You can have grass in other areas, but in all reality, you won't want to spend the time trying to make the whole thing look wonderful - it would be a never-ending, unsuccessful chore. And on the positive side, the areas that don't grow as strongly won't need mowing as often. In New England, September is the best time to seed a lawn since the ground is warm, but the days are shorter and starting to cool off some, so the grass will sprout, but be less likely to be water stressed. There are seed mixtures for shade as well as for sun, so you will want to taylor what you plant to the amount of sun. With your slope, you may find that hydroseeding is more successful since the seed is mixed with cellulose mulch and sprayed on, so it is less likely to wash downhill if you have a heavy rain. As others have said, however, you may find that your current grass comes back better than expected once the weather warms up. One grass-like plant that grows well for me in shade is the native sedge Carex pensylvanica which grows to perhaps 6" and never needs mowing. I have quite a bit of it growing naturally. Your former pool area looks nice and flat now, so I would decide how you want to use that: lawn, veggie gardens, ornamental gardens, patio, putting green, or whatever, or even a combination of the two. I think if sunny enough, a round lawn with a rim of low maintenance flowering perennials would be lovely, and I've seen some gorgeous round ornamental and veggie gardens. A word of caution about fire . . . You live in an area with a lot of combustible material, and most towns have ordinances that control what, when, and how you can burn for reasons of safety. Wildfire/brushfires in wooded housing are a nightmare for firefighters. So for instance in my town, you need a permit unless snow completely covers the ground, and permits are only granted after 5:00 when most of the town's volunteer firefighters are available. This time of year (after snowmelt and before green-up) is the worst for brush fires since the surface of the ground usually has lots of fuel, and the sun is bright enough to dry the surface quickly, even in the woods. Sparks can start a fire that with a little wind can quickly get out of control. If I were in your situation, I wouldn't do any burning of debris since it will rot down on its own and will improve your soil in the process. We either mow leaves into the lawn or compost them (your blowing them into the woods or onto the perimeter beds to control weeds is just fine if you don't want to formally compost them in piles) and sticks can be piled out of sight in the woods to slowly decompose. There are many animals that will value brush piles for shelter. Remember that you don't need to do everything at once. I like to do an overall general plan that shows where I will have lawn, high maintenance ornamental beds, low maintenance ornamental beds, paths, compost, sitting areas, etc., but then I work on just one or two areas at a time. This time of year is great for removing woody weeds since the ground is soft and moist and not much is growing yet. See if you could print several copies of your plot plan and find an elevation map to help as well, and you can use those to try out ideas on paper. Think about things such as areas for trash and compost, how you will get from place to place (steps, formal paths, over the grass, etc.), areas for special interests such as badminton or other sports or bird feeders, sitting areas as well as gardens you can see from windows in the house (such as in an office or by the kitchen sink or from the couch) and whether building terraces with walls to increase your flat areas is worth the work. Once you have a plan, you can decide how to best put your vision into place a piece at a time. As others have said, having mostly lush lawn with all your trees and the slope isn't reasonable, but you can have a beautiful yard with at least some nice lawn and various other beautiful areas to enjoy.

Yes, the reason I'm planning to include common violets is that I have tons of them. I've been trying to get my husband to leave the leaves. This year I succeeded. The area gets little sun. In the middle of my yard is a ginormous copper beech, the area is between it and a row of tall hemlocks bordering the property. In there are some cedars, too and a black locust. I have no tiny weeds there. I get garlic mustard, nightshade, herb robert? and another ubiquitous, non-native weed, which has orange roots and meadow-rue like leaves. Oh and dandelions and colt's foot and euonymous. Sometimes bittersweet and black swallowwort. Basically, a long list of weeds. Plus, some aster which I'm pretty sure is native, which I will distribute so I have attractive clumps, not single weedy-looking plants. My house is over 100 years old and the neighborhood was developed 100 years ago, from farmland or clear cut, so this is not genuine woods or the edge of woods. It's a border in deep shade on a smallish suburban lot with plenty (too many) 100 year old trees.