Improving soil & mulch help please

[Barerootplans]

Hello! We bought a house earlier this year and the plan has been to get the house in order, ponder the garden and be ready to start on it next year.
I'm very much a garden novice.

Anyway, in the meantime I thought maybe I could start with picking a couple of areas, remove perennial weeds and improve the soil.

Rough plan -
Remove weeds
Turn grass over
Cover with cardboard
Add a load of bark mulch
Come back to it winter/spring and maybe do some bare root planting.

Does that sound sensible? If so, what type of mulch would be best?

The garden needs some love...overgrown shrubs, crumbling walls, brambly hits and a strange number of sheds. Much is south facing and going by what's growing there, I'd guess quite acidic soil. Think clay too.

Attached first bit I want to tackle.

Removing big perennial weeds is a good idea, but if you are going to lay cardboard and cover with mulch, you don't need to turn the grass over. It will die under the cardboard and the soil structure will remain intact. Are you doing this because you have a plan for new borders? Do you know what you've already got in the garden?
From what I remember, the first year I just cleared the weeds that were choking the plants and shrubs I recognised, and waited to see what came up (dug up loads of brambles and nettles).
Lots of tulips and daffodils popped up in the spring.

Just saw the photo, yes you can just plonk cardboard straight on top of that, overlap so you exclude the light, then mulch on top. I tend to drop beheaded weeds on top of the cardboard so they can shrivel and add to the mulch (I'm lazy) but no seed heads!

Remember to take the sellotape off the cardboard. I always forget.

@SecretSquid re plan. Early planning for this bit - to use part of that strip in some way for pergola support to plant up & provide shade for seating area below.
If I was to mulch, what type? Have seen pine as well as hardwood and a little confused as to which to get.
Good to know that I don't need to turn grass over.

Pine will make the soil more acid i think? Do you know what soil type you have? Love the pergola idea. A wisteria would look amazing there over a pergola

Your plan sounds perfect, I agree don’t bother to turn the grass. I have a huge garden and am constantly mulching and the best/cheapest I can find is B&Q small bark chip 100 litre bags when they are on x3 for £30. I order x20 at a time and get them delivered on a pallet. The bags are just as cheap and easier to manoeuvre than the 1 ton dumpy bags. it does make the soil more acidic, but I don’t mind that. I also recently found a charity farm place near me that sells manure for £2 a bag, so I add that too. Come autumn, I’d put in lots of spring bulbs (crocus, daffodils, tulips & allium). Roses & Mediterranean plants (olives trees, lavender, salvia) would do well in your sunny spot. Or you could go for a tropical feel. Lovely garden, I’m jealous of your greenhouse.

Think I might take a few pics and hope to get some more help with overall garden plan. Feel a tad overwhelmed with it, in a good way but still overwhelmed:)
Tackling seating / pergola seemed a good place to start!

@Geneticsbunny sellotape yes! And maybe stick to hardwood mulch to balance out acidic soil.
@MIAMNER was thinking dumpy bags but you might be right re movabillity. Will compare prices. Greenhouse yes, never had one before. I've cleared it out a bit and trying tomato plants in there. There's a plant fair near us this sunday and hoping to get a few chilli plants to add.

Your slowly-slowly plan sounds excellent.
Soil improvement is an on-going project so also think about setting up compost and leaf-mould systems.

There has been some discussion on here recently about the cardboard method. It's great for killing off minor weeds but some are not convinced about its efficacy on tougher weeds. The deep-rooted, perennial weeds will not curl up and die for want of a bit of sunshine but will go looking for it at the edges of the cardboard instead i.e. attempted suppression can have the unintended consequence of causing spread!

@senua thanks. I bought a knife! so will see how I do re weeds. Will bear in mind the seeking new home around card.
I was thinking compost and just behind greenhouse there's a shed which I thought I'd take out and add a couple compost bays in it's place. Poss a few raised beds and water butt in front. Trying to figure out wheelbarrow access and if soil or concrete under shed.
Long, long way to go!

You need to dig out perennial weeds, all cardboard does to those is feed them as it breaks down. Personally if you are not going to use that space this year, I'd remove the grass and perennial weeds and put all that into a compost bin, and then leave the soil as it is, and every time another bindweed or couch grass or thistle appears, take it and as much root out as possible.

After a month of perennial weed freeness, then put cardboard and bark down.

You are suggesting greenhouse and compost next to each other. A greenhouse wants full sun but a compost heap wants partial/full shade - does your site give that?

Another starting-from-scratch tip that I would offer is to think about services early in the design. Don't lay lawns or put down paths and then think, "oh, I could really do with putting electrics / water through there"!