Picture is too small to be readable. Maybe you would want to add some slightly overlapping pictures that pan from left to right showing the broad scene ...? Also, mention why you want to do something with it. What do you expect to get out of it?

I have it in google docs... https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qX8paDQ1a5AM8p_7vV5gioneiUqK9l5_i9RmlasR3GI/edit?usp=sharing

I can probably take pictures later on. We have a fenced backyard.

Well we sometimes entertain people and currently it does not look appealing so want to add some herbs and flowers. In the evenings we sit there and the kids run around. currently there is no grass, just weed growing here and there. Also maybe have a designated place for the kids to play. I like to do gardening but I lack on the planning/layout/design side.

Thank you for your help

When you take the pictures, stand at the back center of the house and take a full, panoramic sweep of slightly overlapping pictures. The back of your house should show in the first and last picture. Don't use a computer panorama, as too small. Then go about 30 feet from the house and take a 180* panorama in the other direction (looking toward house. We should see neighbors' properties in the first and last pictures.

here are some pictures.

For starters, here's a general way of laying out the foundation planting.

Please explain the large rectangle in the lawn.

Looks like a concrete slab to me - former garage or shed?

Wow that looks nice already!

It is a concrete slab as I mentioned earlier. We sit there in the evenings. It's empty now because we stored everything for hurricane season and haven't taken them out yet. I was thinking of layers of flower and herbs on the space between the concrete and fence.

It seems unusual to have a patio in the middle of a lawn. Was it planned as a patio or is it a by-product of another endeavor?

Not only unusual....it also looks very disconnected and unintentional. Partly because there is no visible connection between it and the house, not even a walkway! And even if furnished with typical patio accoutrements, it looks very uninviting. I would not want to spend any time out there.

Having no clue what your budget is, my first impression is get rid of it. And rethink how you best want to use this vast, empty space. There is a huge amount of unused/ignored potential. If you want an outdoor seating or entertaining area, site it more conveniently to the house and with some anchoring plantings surrounding it. I see not a single tree, so adding several would be very high on my priority list as well.

IMO, this is a big question with very little definition and a project that is beyond the scope of what advice you may receive here will solve. I'd find a local garden design professional to work with you and help you clarify and define your wants and needs. And then translate them into a workable landscape solution.

thank you for your responses. We plan on putting a gazebo on it someday and also like a patio kitchen with grills. The initial thought was to have sections; the gazebo for entertaining, a section for vegetable garden, a section for kids to play. We plan to put a walkway to connect the concrete with the house, just cannot think how to design it. This house is only 2 years old. We exhausted all our funds behind the house so the yard has been neglected. We have to build up the yard slowly over the years.

My landscaping experience is DIYing/low budget in the Midatlantic on a bare suburban lot. Different climate but I relate to how overwhelming the blank slate is!

If I were you I'd start small, focus on the landscaping around the house, and then work my way out. Mulching is easy and cheap, so getting some foundation beds established around the house would be my first goal. (Not sure if there are different considerations for mulch & foundation planting in Fla?)

I'd also find a way to clean up the paths between the raised beds so I wouldn't have to worry about grass and weeds (gravel, pavers), and create some sort of border (shrubs, fence, herb & perennial garden) around the veg beds to visually establish the first outside "room," since that space is further along than any of your other planned spaces. Having one space defined will probably help you sort out what you want to do with the rest of it.

Those two jobs alone would be plenty of work for this year.

Later, as soon as I had the cash, I'd hire a pro to expand the porch/patio area off the house (you mentioned entertaining; that space looks cramped now, especially in relation to the size of the planned gazebo) and install a nice curving path to the gazebo pad.

I'd make it my long-term goal to have garden beds along the entire fence perimeter because string trimming that much grass is a PITA! I'd also learn all I could about native plants for the area and climate-smart landscaping. No point in planting things that will be a burden. :)

Thank you Dig Doug. That looks like something I have in my mind for the gazebo part of the house. Thanks for putting it in picture.

Thank you ashyaslan for the great advice. We plan to put some pavers around the vegetable beds. Need a design to put bushes or something around that area to hide/seclude it. The nursery I go to have helpful people with knowledge of native plants.

We have chairs and stuff for the "gazebo" pad but had to store them during hurricane season and we still haven't taken them out. We don't entertain on the teeny tiny back porch.

About the fence perimeter, since we don't have grass there my hubby just sprays weed killer there and mows the weeds down everywhere else.

If it wouldn't block the sun in a way you don't want, I would plant different layers of trees, then bushes/shrubs to make a sort of woodland foresty thing along the back and sides of the yard. I know it would take years to get big enough, but I would just start. Nothing huge, but dense do that it creates privacy from the neighbors and reduced the actual lawn. I would create my patio closet to the house. I wouldm't this he concrete slab. If you are going to invest in a gazebo, outdoor kitchen, I would want the freedom to put it where I wanted, not locate it based on a pre-existing chunk of concrete.

i really like the mockup Yardvark made for you.

This may have been mention, but if so, I missed it. How large a lot is it? Acres?

Unless you are rolling in $$, make a 5-year plan and do it gradually. Decide what's most important and live with the rest until it's all done. That's a lot of yard, and you may change your mind at some point, so do it slowly.

@ hazelmn it is 0.7 acres.

It will probably be a 10 year plan for us! :S