Don't use weedkiller in any circumstances, it pollutes your environment, kills insects , bees, mycelium etc and gets into the food chain. The best way to get rid of weeds is to alter your attitude to them . The definition of a weed is an unwanted plant. So ... here,s what to do.Dig out any large perrenial weeds. As previous comments , rotovate soil to remove any compaction. Add topsoil and add sharp sand. So here,s the thing , if you regularly mow your lawn i.e. once a week , it will kill the weeds, because unlike grass most plants cannot sustain being repeatedly cut back,and don,t worry about the odd weed here and there

Back from hols, bit of sunburn but I didn’t forget about your dilemma:-). Had spare time today so did some sketches although looking back at your photos I realized the shed has door on the right rather than in the middle but you can alter things as you wish. Please bear in mind that I’m not a professional, just someone who loves garden planning and sketches are rough guesses from the given photos and not to scale. So far as I can see the majority of the garden is well laid out. The patio by the French/bifold doors, the raised planters and the shed are in a good position and I don’t see any necessity in altering them. There are a couple of issues which i think I’ve tried to address in sketches. The pod seat looks a bit shoved up the corner so I would try and relocate this so it’s more involved in the garden and inviting to sit in. Perhaps replace that corner with a specimen tree or shrub suitable for small gardens. https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/20-trees-for-small-gardens/. As mentioned before the picket fence I would remove as I think it blocks flow, I think I’d rather fence off the dogs rather than kids so perhaps by re using some of the fence to create gates between the main patio and the rest of the garden would enable you to give a bit more free space for either the dogs or kids, whichever prefers which. I notice the lawn is seeing a lot of foot traffic so by adding another pathway the other side of the raised planters should enable you to access other areas of the garden without stepping over the lawn. In sketch 3 I’ve tried to give you an extra patio for evening sun by extending the triangle but not sure if that’s poss but should be enough for a bistro set. Where I put low or ground level planting I was thinking something like ornamental grasses and such which I’ll post a few inspo pics. I do realize that I’ve decreased the amount of lawn in most but I do feel that the extra planting and pathways will help to bring the garden together and make it feel more intimate. Anyway, I’m waffling on, feel free to carry on or change my ideas. Try different layouts by using a garden hose or string and pegs, but most importantly work out where you’d like to sit out most and what you would like to view when looking from windows and of course pick plants for the right place. (Click on pics to enlarge).

Ta da! Hope you can see the photo ok, had to use the flash (click to enlarge). Tried to keep things fairly simple without compromising on the lawn space and just bear in mind the sketches aren’t to scale. From what you say I think you’ll definitely be wanting a path to link the different areas together but what materials you use for the path is entirely up to you. Hopefully the sketches are self explanatory but I’ll give a little more info. Sketch 1, I added a water feature on the left but you could put anything here, it just breaks up the border a bit. Sketch 2, I brought the pergola forward a bit so it’s not so shoved up the corner. I think this will more pleasing especially as you’d have room for planting behind. In both 1 and 2 the shed is positioned widthways as again I think this would look more pleasing. Sketch 3 is going from Jonathan’s idea of using a curve. Pergola would have to be custom made tho. Used a corner shed and circle patio in bottom left is mainly for decorative purposes. Sketch 4 I’ve swapped things about and created a little yard area for shed on the left which is surrounded by trellis. This might be a great way to disguise unsightly things like compost bin etc. The feature could be anything like a little water fountain, statue or bird bath. Anyway hopes this gives you some inspiration and feel free to plan things how you’d like them and I’m pretty sure Sonia can advise on planting suggestions 🙂. Love 💕 your extension btw.

As others have said, if you cut the grass at the back and remove any obvious weeds, then you’ll have your “canvas”. I wouldn’t use a designer as a) I’m Yorkshire and far too tight and b) if you don’t know what you want yet, you’ll be in danger of really going OTT, to find out later, it’s not really you. D never really had a decent garden and moved into a new build over 10 years ago with a landscaped garden, I then filled a lot of gaps as I didn’t take into account, that plants grow. (Who knew?). 5 years later, I realised that I wasn’t that much of a gardener and that spending hours and hours every week tending it wasn’t my plan, so we stripped out loads of smaller plants and simplified it. If you want to sit out and enjoy it with fiends and family but don’t want to spend ages looking after it, then go for shrubs around the edges. If you want a new hobby or to test your gardening skills and like-ability I’d create a tiny herb patch near your door. This will give you an idea of whether you like gardening or not. I wouldn’t try and create your masterpiece in one go. Measure it all and play around with different designs.(PowerPoint worked fine for me) and then do a side at a time. As for your front garden, to be honest I’d tackle that first as it’s what you see every day when you come home and it’ll look lovely at Christmas. Just turf where it is, as I see it already has edging, again just cutting that and treating it with lawn care should be fine for now. A pot either side of the front door and then decide on the driveway. The resin ones do look nice, we have block paving that also looks nice but still has to be weeded and fresh sand brushed in between the bricks every year. Whatever you decide, have fun doing it.