Any suggestions for this space please?

[Comingupdaffs]

We have a garden that came with the house, I've planted a bit of stuff since but not had the time/energy for any big changes, so it's mostly stayed as-is in terms of the layout etc. But a couple of years back I had to knock down the old playhouse that came with the garden, as it had gone rotten (and the kids had also outgrown it). So now we have a dead space where that used to be, and also an annoying stub of lawn in front of it that's not really useful or attractive and is a pain to mow. So I am trying to get some ideas please for alternative ways to use that space!

On the pics, the playhouse was on the square between the compost bins at the back, scruffy fence along the left side and the bed at the front with the bamboo/cornus/hellebores etc. It has some remains of plants on at the moment as last year DH chucked some wild-flower seeds where the playhouse used to be as a temporary thing, but it was a bit messy and didn't make it particularly nice or usable (and we already have a meadow area at the back of the main lawn, so don't feel the need for more), so I'd like to do something a bit more permanent and planned with it! The bit of lawn I'd be happy to lose is the section between the playhouse space, the dark fence at the back and the trees/trellis on the right. (As you can see on the second-last pic, we have plenty of lawn in the rest of the garden - which we'll need to keep for now as it's used as a football pitch/badminton court as well as having bulbs in and the meadow in summer, so I'm happy to get rid of this extra bit!).

Things I would like - for it to be a more attractive area, as it's quite near the house; definitely more flowers; ideally something reasonably wildlife-friendly (though we already have quite a few feeders etc), possibly some sort of water feature?, and maybe somewhere nice to sit and relax (we probably wouldn't eat there, as we have a big table on the decking for that). Not interested in growing veg or anything like that though, and would like to avoid having to walk over too much mud to get to things (see below).

There are a few challenges as well:

• The 3 compost bins you can see on the pics (which used to be hidden behind the playhouse) - which we either need to keep where they are and try to find a way to hide them, or move somewhere else (but not sure there's really another good place for them!). They'll also need to be accessible and ideally not too muddy to get to, so maybe a path or something.
• Behind the trellis on the right there is a berry patch with blackberries (though more brambles than blackberries really!), raspberries and redcurrants, with a path down the middle which you can sort-of see on the 3rd pic (starting between the rosemary bush and the big eucalyptus by the fence), so we will still need to be able to get to that
• I don't get much time for gardening, so it will have to be reasonably low-maintenance! (And I won't have a huge amount of money to spend on it either.)

The first 2 pics show the area I want to do something with, the rest are of the berry patch and rest of the garden just for context. The house is at the back of the decking you can see on the last couple.
Thanks in advance for any good ideas!
(PS - have namechanged for this as I've shared the pics elsewhere too under my real name, so didn't want to be recognisable!)

Not everyone's cup of tea and you have to be mindful of neighbours, but we had something similar and turned it into a fire pit area. It was a bit of a rush job tbh, which came about only because we were having a large BBQ and it looked a mess, but it has ended up becoming one of the most popular spots in our garden.

I see what you mean, if you're sitting on the deck that patch is to your left isn't it as opposed to tucked away at the end of the garden.

I would get rid of the compost Daleks and replace with a less unsightly, larger wooden compost bin (could be made out of pallets but that wouldn't be aesthetically pleasing). I'd probably tuck that to the right of the bamboo so it's accessible but not necessarily visible from the deck. The corner (where the compost bins currently are) needs something nice to look at as your eye is drawn to it - maybe a small tree, a shrub? I would plant something to soften the fences too, and/or paint them.

Your idea of a pond would be lovely there and it would be the best thing for wildlife, however it looks like there are a couple of biggish trees on the fence line so you'd have to manage leaf fall in the autumn so as not to clog the pond up. My sister and bil put a pond in their garden and we all gravitate towards it and find it so relaxing and fascinating to just sit/stand and watch the wildlife. They have some large tree stumps/logs as seating at one end of the pond. Does the area get a fair amount of sun?

Thank you both!

When you say a fire pit area, so is that basically a patio area with seating and a fire pit? That would be a possibility I think, maybe something like a round patio bit with planting around it or something, will think it over!

Yes I would definitely want to plant stuff against the fences wherever they're visible, either climbers and/or DH was suggesting we could possibly train a fruit tree on one or something - and I was thinking of (re)painting them all the same as the dark brown one on the right - it sets off the tree trunks nicely and I also grew an orange black-eyed Susan up it in the summer, which looked fab! Forgot to mention that. And agreed that getting less ugly/wooden compost bins would help with hiding them too. I'll have to have a look at moving them to behind the bamboo, or whether there's not enough space there for them to fit easily.

That's a very good point about falling leaves though, and might rule out a proper pond - the eucalyptus you can just see the trunk of is massive and REALLY messy, it drops leaves, bark and twigs over most of the area constantly, so actually that wouldn't be great for a pond or anything like that... Though a smaller water feature on the left side might be OK, as the mess is worst below and to the right of the tree.

I also forgot to say that if you're looking into that area, that's roughly South-West. So the playhouse bit is shaded by the fence when the sun is low, but does get some sun around midday (except right by the fence) and sometimes later on too. The lawn bit is shaded by the silver birch some of the time but also gets sun some of the time as it moves round.