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):

Brent, Yes, I see what you're getting at, that's a good point. However, it's going to be a personal space: I just want complete privacy. I don't do a lot of entertaining: I'll really just use it for relaxing, and to create a completely private enclosure. I won't be doing anything wierd in there, BTW :) I just want seclusion. I am going to consider your point for awhile... Hadn't really thought about that. I'll post a picture, as you suggest. Thanks for your help. BTW, I'm considering 10' long, 4X4 Cedar posts on 4' centers, buried 3, with a single gate and latticework in between the postss. That's just my initial thought: I think that it would be relatively cheap and easy. I'll use that concept as a starting point as a way to think about the space. I may stick with it, I may not.

The stones for the retaining wall have not been a problem. KDHE Licensed Child Care department (Kansas Department of Health and Environment) inspects my property annually and has said nothing about using the stone around the play set. The stones are 10 inches wide and the kids love walking around the play set balancing. They are set out away from the play set. It looks like they are closer than they actually are. The rubber mulch has been amazing. It stays put, does not stick to the kids clothes and does not get kicked out at least not enough to concern me. I love the rubber mulch and also used it in some spots up by my porch patio because the wood mulch was constantly blowing onto the patio with the slightest of wind so I replaced it with the rubber mulch in those areas it stays put no matter what kind of Kansas winds we get. Another bonus of the rubber mulch is that it retains the dark brown color that I like. We have had this mulch down for 2 years and it is still a nice dark brown. We placed the mulch over a heavy duty landscape fabric and under the fabric we put newspaper right over the top of the grass. ( I had read about putting newspaper down under landscaping fabric and mulch to kill the grass and be weed free. It works! I really think it is the newspaper layer under the fabric that kills the grass. Our neighbors thought we where crazy not to kill the grass first before putting the mulch down! I wasn't sure it was a great idea either but it definitely worked. This post was edited by rtwilliams on Tue, Aug 19, 14 at 14:33

It will be best if you can balance cut and fill so that you don't need to import or haul away any soil. My example will be rectangular, but the same principle would apply to any shape. The odder it is, the more difficult it will be to make the calculations for establishing the elevation, but likely, you'll be able to get pretty well in the ballpark. If you have a little soil left over or run short, you'll probably find ways to deal with it pretty easily. Imagine a curb configured in a rectangle, like a picture frame. See figure A. Next, lay the 'picture frame curb' down such that it is lying flat on the ground. See figure B. Given that the ground is pitched, in order to allow the finished area to remain level, excavate the higher elevation portion and place all the cast off soil in the area confined by the lower elevation portion of the 'picture frame curb.' See figure C. If the ground happens to be pitched more ... enough that the curb running level won't sufficiently confine the cut or fill slope, you'll have to "stack" two 'picture frame curbs' together, combining their vertical thickness in order to make a low picture frame retaining wall'. See figure D. It would continue building in the same manner for greater degrees of slope. Keep in mind that you're not going to want the "box" created by the 'picture frame' to be completely full of soil. You'll need it to be a few inches lower in order to have room for a layer of mulch. It's possible that in order to balance cut and fill, you may need to set the overall structure slightly lower and add a little more retention at the cut end. See figure E.