Grass does not do well in this stretch of our yard (see area marked by red line) despite attempts at aerating, sod, seed, redirecting sprinklers, etc.

Regardless, we actually need to put down ‘hard pack’ to abide by a city easement anyway. The easement is basically where the grass has struggled to the fence.

First

Any design ideas that don’t make our yard look like it’s awkwardly divided by the pergola area?

We have a larger more uniform/ square area of the yard around the corner from this area where the easement exists.

The 3rd picture is from our pergola, which essentially bifurcates the yard.