others will ID ...

first.. ID everything.. and get rid of any unhealthy ones .. much easier.. prior to developing a garden under ...

then.;. lets define how much lawn you really need ... for some reason.. i am thinking.. the box you are in .. is wanting to go do beds way the heck out there.. under these other plants ...

soooo .. are there kids who need that football field ... or perhaps you just like spending hours per week mowing lawn ...

this is a common mistake for those moving from the confines of suburbia.. to real space ...

then.. start define some garden beds ... perhaps halfway between the camera and that tree line ...

it might also be a good time.. to invest in a few spigots... out there in the lawn ... or you will be investing in a couple thousand feet of hoses ...

from my spigot on the house ... which has a $15 filter for sand in my well ... and a backflow preventor ... then it goes straight out about 250 feet .. and Ts off in various directions .. out there.. and along the way ... and i have about 15 spigots around the yard ... i only spent one summer dragging 500 feet of hose around the yard ...

in my sand.. they DRAGGED IN the supply line.. and i did all the rest ...

in late fall .. i blow it out with a compressor ... and detach it from the house ...

pic below is from 2007 ... i moved here in jan 2000 ... you should be able to tell what trees were there prior ..

ken

BTW .. first year.. that was 2 hours of mowing ...

No need for huge expanses of lawn, as we will be dealing with construction issues around the house, it is simply easier to begin at the back and work our way forward. The property is 260' front by 340' deep. The property slopes slightly towards the back so it will be a nice view from our (future) deck. It takes 3 hours to mow and trim (not by me as I am too busy with my hostas). The deck is only 42" so DH is on the hunt for a larger one.

We have already purchased the irrigation equipment. The barn has its own well and we have rigged up a pump and purchased water pipes to put underground to various spigots that will be placed appropriately. I do not wish to be dragging around more than 50' of hose at any one time. This will do for the first year. It is sandy here, too - how was the dragging done for installation?

Thank you for the photo for reference. Truth be told, your beautiful garden is something that I will strive towards. My DH has requested that there be some expanse of grass (what for - I do not know) and as we try to live by the 'give and take rule'; I will acquiesce. Another reason to start at the back as there are already trees there and I won't be disturbing 'lawn expanses'.

I have already decided to keep the hostas in pots this year, they will be fine and I would prefer to get started on the conifer planning plus that gives me a year to prepare some garden beds for planting spring 2016. There are 5 'crop circle' beds place sporadically around the yard. The soil has been amended for years and it is in very good condition (now that the weeds are almost all out).

I have taken some photos for your reference, I would appreciate your opinion. It seems to make sense to me to start using the existing beds and expand upon them? There aren't too many plants in them as one full year without care wiped out a lot of what was probably there. In the middle of the yard towards the back there is a massive pile of debris that we have been working on burning - we inherited it.

The first one is from the driveway at the front looking back (West) through the narrow space between the house and the barn. The next photo is taken from the steps that you can see in this photo.

This photo is taken from the other side of the house looking towards the back of the property (looking west).

Across the front looking south (towards the driveway).

From the NW looking back towards the house.

From in front of the barn looking NW. Behind the young tree at the right of this photo is the neighbour's pool. I would like to plant some conifers large enough to hide it.

Thanks for looking.

I would connect some of those beds that are scattered about for a more unified look. Think of the lawn shape as a body of water. That way, design decisions are easier.
It appears you have a piece of gardener's Heaven.
Mike

Thank you, Mike that is good advice. I agree that the gardens are not cohesive, hence the term I used 'crop circles' because they seem to be so random.

It is my wish that I never run out of gardening space here :)