Wow, thanks to each of you for sharing your thoughts - I feel like a kid on Christmas seeing so many responses! Before I start addressing all comments, I want to note the "secret garden" I forgot to mention in my original post. Right now it's just a heavily shaded area in the back corner (SE) of the yard enclosed by major overgrowth accessed by a gate from inside the dog pen. I'm not sure how shaded it would be if we were to seriously get after the privet/junk hedge jungle, but I thought I would mention it in case any of you have brilliant ideas for it as I think it could be a really special little area. No grass, some purple flowering ground cover, a scraggly old tree with a thick L shaped branch (would be a great climber). Now on to business. I'll start by topic, & try to answer any questions. The privet hedge: Frankly, it scares me. I've been pretending it doesn't exist for the past 2.5 years but it's time to start facing it. Ideally, I would love to replace it but it's just not in the budget so I suppose we will try to cut it back and clean it up (per Yardvaark & Whitecap2's instructions - lower cuts, full-on weed war). As unsightly as it is, it does provide invaluable privacy and effectively blocks out the houses behind us. Yes, our nice neighbor to the east just had the stretch between us heavily cut back but the weed eradication remains our problem to tackle - yikes... Possible future addition: This is really just a dream at this point but I want to avoid extensive or large planting in the area in case my dream does one day come true. The new wing would ideally extend south & a bit east as shown in blue in the pic below. I've probably made it a little over sized but that should give you an idea. Afternoon shade: The carport wing of the house does cast shade starting at about 2:00 or so in the summer. It takes a while to extend much further than the bed but eventually about 1/3 of the lawn becomes shaded. Yardvaark, I like the a/c screen & tree placement suggestions. And thank your for explaining the major down to minor (tall to short) planning method. Such a basic concept but one I'd never thought about before, with this being my first from-scratch landscaping project. I will definitely return with a plan for you all to review before starting any work. This forum is such an incredible resource & I am so grateful to each of you for sharing your knowledge! Whitecap2, the small covered porch (8'x18') is up against the house & steps down to the exposed patio. I have marked it in green in the pic below. I had no idea hedges were passe ("so 60's"); I think they can be quite lovely when not grotesquely overgrown like ours! Catkim, I adore the idea of a courtyard - so very charming. Beds along the hedge also sound very nice. And that link to the children's garden - how adorable! This would be a great time to start something like that as my little girl is now 16 months. Mad_gallica, the dog run does eat up almost all of the existing shade but I'm afraid most of that shade is created by the junk growing in the privet hedge. If we were to clean up the hedge, I don't know how much shade would remain in that area. Regardless, the pen & dog house have to go. Bahia, I'm ordering my own copy of the Southern Living Garden Book today. Thank you so much for the suggestion. I'm shocked my green thumbed mother & grandmother had not mentioned this book to me! Unfortunately, the sewer line is the original clay pipe. Depending on the type of design we settle on, it may be something we need to address before any landscaping begins. Whitecap2, yes; lots of high maintenance, sun-drenched, thirsty grass. We purchased the house from the elderly widow of the original owner/builder who we have discovered made many odd decisions. But that's another story entirely. Bahia, the carport does provide late afternoon shade, perhaps to about 1/3 of the back yard. As mentioned above, the turf is high maintenance. We have recently been working on the weeds more aggressively but the past 2 summers it required mowing every 5-7 days & lots of supplemental watering. I love the idea of adding another shaded terrace further out in the yard. I will definitely give this more thought. Catkim, thank you so much for your comments on pergola placement. I have toyed with the idea of a pretty vine covered pergola in the past but never would have thought to place it further out to cast the properly desired shade. Thank you for keeping me from making a big mistake! Whitecap2, visually I would prefer a patio over a deck in our situation. But I agree, anything would be more usable & less maintenance than our wide open grass field! You totally nailed my sentiment toward our current backyard: "It just seems to me regrettable that so large a space should be usable for such a short duration." We want to get outside & play! Bahia, I wish we did have sufficient summer rainfall but Memphis tends to get hot & dry, irrigation systems being a must have for any well landscaped yard. Regarding our outdoor habits, they are definitely evolving as our child grows. A year ago I probably would not have sought a space for midday/afternoon play but now it is a real priority. As this is our first child, I'm not sure what to expect in terms of future needs but everything you mentioned ("play equipment set, lawn area for ball games or running around, a secret garden or play house? Sited to be easily viewable/supervised by parents from indoors, etc.") sound like great ideas. Any additional advice for planing with a child in mind would be wonderful! Whitecap2, you are again right on. The lawn has not been overly happy even with all the attention we give it. I think the spots in the pictures are probably a result of the professional monthly spraying we started at the end of 2011. Yardvaark, I'm not sure how much more patio space we would want. I think it would definitely be a budgetary decision. The current patio is yucky pebble concrete & I wouldn't even know how to go about expanding it. I certainly wouldn't want any more of the pebble stuff. Would the whole thing have to be ripped up or could some kind of stone be laid on top and extended further out? I hope I touched on everything. Again, thank you so much for all your help. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it! Possible future addition (blue) & current covered patio (green):

It might be recommended to loosen your soil in some parts of the world and in some forums, but I certainly don't make that suggestion. By softening, are you referring to rototilling? That's a big no-no. I don't have a sprinkler system in San Antonio and have managed to maintain St Augustine in a lot worse climate than Houston. The only problem that will wipe out St Augustine is not watering long enough when you water. The amount of water needed for St Augustine also happens to be the amount of water needed for bermuda if you want the bermuda to look nice. If you don't care whether the bermuda looks nice, then you can get away with no water at all. THAT is where bermuda differs from St Aug. St Aug dies without water while bermuda only goes dormant. Bermuda will not grow immediately to the north of south-side fences, so find a different solution for that location. Something else you might consider is calling in a landscaper. Oops! Never mind. Just reread that part about the budget. Rather than scalping the lawn, rent a verticutter, power rake, or slit seeder. Any one will work. These machines will barely cut into the surface of the soil but they remove all the plants. Then rake or blow all that stuff away before seeding. After you seed, roll the seed down with a rented roller. It is very important to get good contact with the soil. Now the most important suggestion I can give you is to WAIT TO SEED BERMUDA until late May or June when the soil is fully warmed up. Seeding bermuda now is a waste of seed and time. In the mean time sit on your hands. Find a copy of The Bermuda Bible online and memorize it. The author, Texas-Weed, will be along here soon and reply to this with additional, and perhaps conflicting, tips for you. He's the man when it comes to bermuda, though.

the sunset western garden book is indeed a very useful (but not infallible) source of information and well worth a look. some evergreen shrubs to consider include viburnum tinus and escallonia rubra (this plant makes an excellent trimmed hedge), the native medium to large shrubs vaccinium ovatum/huckleberry and gaultheria shallon/salal/"lemon leaf", large shrubs to small trees include the evergreen arbutus unedo (excellent plant), prunus lusitanica (great screen plant much easier to deal with as tree or shrub than the more common p. lauracerasus/"english laurel"), the many different forms of the deciduous japanese maple (acer palmatum) or the native vine maple/a. circinatum, the hybrid dogwood cornus "eddy's white wonder" or the asian cornus kousa are good companion plants as well. for a large tree the native garry oak (quercus garryana) and/or the incense cedar (calocedrus decurrens) or the western red cedar/thuja plicata. add all sorts of native and introduced rhododendrons and azaleas various camellias (medium to large evergreen shurbs) plus deciduous hydrangeas and the tropical looking but generally hardy large shrub fatsia japonica and you have a lot of plants to potentially play with. all of these and many more are discussed in the garden book (and of course on the internet)--- i would also add that the university of british columbia has an excellent botanic garden that could provide a wealth of ideas and information on what plants to plant and how and where to plant them. good luck looking things up..

I wouldn't remove another thing until I identified everythng you have. You may be taking out choice trees, shrubs and groundcover. Make ample use of the "Name this plant" forum. Easy to post a picture and get answers often in minutes. I would also be very wary of what you're doing with the plant removal and potential grade change. It looks like you have created a bare slope aiming water runoff right for your foundation or cellar. Yes, tree work is expensive but you will get much smarter at it. Many of them can be felled yourself, especially when smaller. Some can be dropped and left for you to cut. If you burn wood, the hardwoods are valuable fuel. The softwoods like the pine you removed are good only for mulch and screening views (stacked). You can learn to prune. You now know the cost of tree removal. Planting new trees can be just as expensive if you hire labor to plant large specimens! It takes years of nurturing to grow a mature tree. So my advice again is to SLOW DOWN. Not to be a wet blanket...