Hey that's me! I think if you click on my user name you can follow me. Though I am not that exciting. But at least if you do we can email each other and can discuss it. Or I can just put my phone number on here. But I do not know if that is aginst the rules?? Out of curiousity who is the developer and builder?

Your backyard looks like my back yard did a half dozen years ago. Working it gradually, I selected the trees that were worth while, cut some out, and trimmed a lot. I also used a lot of poison ivy spray. With each opportunity I spent a half hour or so in the area with the first tool I saw from the list of tools mentioned above. In doing this I discovered that I had ground cedar, some wild lilies, and some other interesting plants. One of the first trips into the area I found a very young holly with about 6 leaves, I marked it and now it has a couple of dozen leaves and is about 13" high. I also found a beautiful young oak that I have been trimming and encouraging by heavily trimming the surrounding trees. One of the first things I did was take an axe into the area and cut every poison ivy vine I could find, yet taking care not to cut the Virginia creeper. I had been collecting all of the brush on a pile in the very back. My wife got a chipper shredder for me for my birthday, and now I my brush pile has become wood chip paths through the area. I also found that pine cones and gum balls make a good cover base for paths. One of the things we have is many different animals and birds in the area. Squirrels, rabbits, deer, and birds from humming birds to vultures, and dozens of different ones in between. You don't get that if you make your yard look like a golf course.

People can't tell by looking at a picture of a small section of your yard if it's already graded, or if it needs to be graded. In order to have the best chance of getting relevant comments, you need to show your WHOLE back yard. It's best to show it in the most orderly, comprehensive, easy-to-understand way first, before elaborating on smaller areas of it. In order to do that, stand near the back center of the house with your camera in hand. Stay at that spot for ALL pictures of the scene, merely pivoting the camera. Begin by aiming the camera to far left so that some of the house shows up in the viewfinder. Continue panning the camera to the right snapping slightly overlapping pictures until you capture the last photo at right. It will show some of the other side of the house in the picture. Post the pictures individually. Don't make a panorama of them first.

Either an experienced landscape designer or a landscape architect could work here. Ask around for recommendations, have a budget in mind that is reasonable for the work you want done (this doesn't sound like a job with a budget of a couple thousand dollars) and when you start talking with folks, ask for references and to see work they've done previously. Decide if your budget will let all the work happen at once or if you want to do some parts now such as hardscape and groundcover and will need to do the rest of the work in stages. Realize that timing is such that in many parts of the country, everyone is starting to think about work that they want done this season, so at this time of year you may find that professionals are fairly busy. Consider whether you can live with a season of something like mulch or a green cover crop or hydroseeded grass to hold the soil while plans are made by someone you really want to do the work or if you want construction to start this season.