Garden planning - feedback appreciated

[toomuchtooold]

We bought this place last March but for various reasons didn't get anything done in it at all last year. It is a bit of a monster - about 360 sq m, a lot of it sloped, with a blooming rockery and lots of mature bushes. Most of it is a bit overgrown, lawn is all away to hell and I've spent the last couple of weeks cutting back all the bushes. There's also a bit of slope where lots of stones and topsoil have been dumped... on the bright side (literally) it's almost all south facing, it's decent loamy soil (acidic in one section, neutral in the other).
This will be easier with pictures won't it. OK pic 1 is my pH neutral slope with stones all over the picture is facing east and my garden extends to just before that big tree. It's open to next door's field and I'm thinking a hawthorn/buckthorn hedge to separate us and also to protect the slope from the east wind. Then on the slope itself, autumn fruiting raspberries - any suggestions? On that fence on the left, was going to grow some hops. Possibly a bay tree at the gate in that fence.

Right, second pic is the same terrace as in the first pic but looking south now. There will be a fence round the terrace eventually as it is about a 1.5m drop. I was going to grow a honeysuckle (suggestions? I was thinking Japonica, but basically something evergreen and not incredibly toxic is what I need) up the wall below the terrace and eventually over the fence. And then some herbs in pots on the terrace.

Apologies for the rubbishness of the third photo, this is a massive crazy overgrown rockery below the house. I was thinking to plant it with lavender, rosemary, thyme, oregano etc - I can chuck a bunch of lime on it if it's too acid for lavender.
There's a whole other big massive bit with elders and rhododendrons and an overgrown lawn but I'm just going to try and keep that below knee height this year

What do you think? What would you do?

Well... I spoke to a local landscaping company about getting my rockery converted into terraced beds and a couple of sets of steps put in... they quoted me 21,000 euros! So we'll be leaving the slope well alone, I think...

I cut the overgrown grass for the first time yesterday. With the lawn mower at the top height it hardly looks cut but still it filled the grass collector about 15 times! I need to get some fertiliser on there. The amount of organic material I've taken out of our garden in the last 2 months is awesome.

Thanks for raspberry advice, will move mine to west facing bed and not tie them in.

I have no ideas for a sloping garden except to say that there seems little point spending that much on terracing unless you want to grow grapes for wine. There is a house near here which has terracing from Roman times created on a steep bank for that purpose: the terracing is known as 'lynchets'

Also wish to point out that for children there is nothing nicer than somersaulting or rolling down a steep bank with daisies and grass in the summer.

Also if you plant hellebores at the top you can look up at their flowers. In fact if you plant self seeders like primroses snowdrops and crocuses at the top they will then seed down the bank. Carol Klein's tip.