Oh thank you so much! Will hopefully have attached photos to this.
It pretty much gets no shade at all, ever.
Soil - not sure, sorry. Haven't planted a huge number of things. We have a sage plant that is unbelievably happy, if that helps ... ?
It is theoretically level but actually quite uneven - we've just had a one storey extension built with French windows and bifold doors; from the French windows, it's only a couple of inches to step down onto the lawn, whereas from the bifolds it's just under a foot. Not really sure how to flatten it.
I apologise for how totally shit it looks in the photos, I'm a bit horrified! We've just had building work done so has had no attention at all plus lots of stuff dumped in it.
When we moved in, the garden was mainly lawn, bisected by a concrete path, which had two cypresses (I think) at the end of it, one on each side. We took these out, as they were ugly, mainly dead, and full of spiders. Each lawn has a ditch all the way round it, about 6 inches deep, presumably once flower beds (the house had been unoccupied for a bit when we bought it) but now just used for tripping unsuspecting toddlers.
For the past couple of years, we've had a clothes line along the path, then the left hand (from the house) lawn was used for play and the right hand lawn had veg beds and briefly (before death by hurricane) a cheap greenhouse. However, we have completely neglected it for the past 6 months or so plus the extension has obviously eaten up a bit of garden.
My plan is to get rid of the path, which now serves no purpose, and which I think will make it look bigger. New, more robust fence between us and next door. Something immediately outside the new doors - preferably flags (if we can deal with the fact it's so uneven), possibly decking for ease - not loads, basically just because we need a step down from the bifold doors. Some sort of shade - thinking possibly a triangular shade sail, with two corners attached to the house and the third to the swing set or a tall post in the new fence. Get rid of the massive quantities of rubbish strewn around (and the pile of dirt! - intended to fill in some of the ditches).
We have a (new, to us) greenhouse that needs to go somewhere and DH would like somewhere to grow veg, but I feel we don't need an entire lawn dedicated to this - perhaps some long beds down one side or the back? My priority is to maximise space for the kids to play. Not that you can tell from the photos, but we actually have an amazing view across rolling fields to the hills beyond, so wouldn't want to do anything to block this out, but don't mind tall planting down the side between us and neighbour (neighbour may not agree).
Immoveable things: shed to the side of the house, massive swing set (though isn't concreted in or anything so technically moveable, but would be a nightmare), (badly placed) apple tree just behind the swing set.
Spent all our savings on building so budget is more or less non-existent.
Photos are:
view from the house showing path and swings. Large den to the left isn't usually there (but is table and bench that need to go somewhere), was trying to entertain poorly DD!
view from end of garden looking back towards the house
view from the side showing the shed
my badly drawn not to scale plan
Sorry this is so long!