Well, you have plenty of issues there to deal with. :) The best way to deal with compacted soil at your lawn is to get a proper aerator, run it over the lawn, remove all arisings and then fill in the holes by raking in a sand, topsoil, grass seed mix. The sand will help keep the soil aired and non-compacted while the topsoil will retain moisture for the grass seed. The worst lawn areas (e.g. underneath tree) I would consider turning into low maintenance planting beds, You can use evergreen perennials like turf-lily, which will grow in those harsh conditions, without giving you more gardening work. Finally, find attached an example of really cute, easy to build, pallet seat/loungers. These ones are by an austrian company (palettenmoebel.at).

Garden rescue is my favourite program at the moment and the Rich brothers just used three staghorn sumacs in a garden and they looked fab. I thought they would manage well in the raised beds with their shallow roots. I know they do sucker but I’ve had them in many gardens and never had an issue. Peachypear many of them only get to three metres high and my philosophy regarding trees is loppers and pruning saw are my best friends.

You’ve done a great job! Although I hope there’s a plan to sort out the rickety steps (they look a bit of a death trap). I kinda like the denuded trees and agree with keeping them for privacy. For planting underneath you’ll need plants for dry shade as the trees will suck up a lot of moisture, some good suggestions on these sites: https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/20-plants-for-dry-shade/ https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=430 I’d perhaps go for a mixture of ferns, foxgloves, primulas, a creeping ground cover and pop a few spring flowering bulbs underneath. Stonecrop (lots of variations) is another plant that should cope well with little or no attention. Hope this helps a little.

Well, I think you need to design the garden with islands of plants and the gravel as a river flowing through is. This is why they have the larger stones, as stepping stones to cross the ‘river’. You could also use Azaleas, very Japanese and they can ope with sunny spots. They need acidic soil. Did you already have Pinus sylvestris? Think that‘ll go very well. But the most important thing is the island structure with the gravel river, I think. So I suggest you’ll lay a rope through your gravel to see where you would like your river to flow and then create a couple of planted islands, some large, some smaller, and go from there. There are creeping plants for sunny spots that can mimic the moss for example. And do see if you can incorporate a water feature. A tub dug into the ground to hold the water with a pump and a rock or bowl on top to pump the water through. Simple, but effective. You only need electricity. Or a sun powered pump.