Hi Blake, What an exciting time of your life. I would agree that painting the fence charcoal will be a great start. I would create a few zones. You like the idea of a fire pit, so get one of those fabulous metal dishes that can be custom designed such as Yarrawonga Custom Plasma Cutting does. You could put this outside the alfresco area and pave the space around it. PO Box designs do some amazing lazer cut decorative screens and sculptures. You could break up the fence and add more height and privacy by placing a decorative screen on it which can even be backlit to give a lovely atmosphere at night. Just be aware that you shouldn't block the neighbour's light, especially that high window which they wouldn't be able to see you from but will be providing important light for their home. I suggest having an edible garden. You can plant oranges, lemons and limes which are all evergreen, grow to a good height, and have the bonus of divine smelling flowers and fruit that you can use, and under them plant herbs such as rosemary, sage, and thyme. A bay tree is very useful, but they can grow huge so keep it in a pot or prune hard to keep it to a workable shape. You can use the leaves fresh or dried so cut away and give the prunings to friends! In a shady spot that you are happy to have anything grow, you could plant mint. It will spread but I use it by the arm full in summer in my drinking water, in salads and in fact most summer dishes, and even as fresh mint tea. It will bring in the bees. If you don't want it to spread them plant it in a tub. I would also make some raised beds for some home grown vegies such as tomatoes and annual herbs like basil and parsley. Water is great to attract birds and bees so find a small birdbath and place it by a plant so that the birds can feel safe. I have a lovely one that is on a pedestal with little wrens around the edge but a wide shallow dish on a ground of pebbles looks lovely too. It is lovely to have fresh flowers inside so adding gardenias, daphne, lavender, native shrubs like grevilleas, banksias, correas, bulbs such as daffodils and jonnies, also iris and roses are all lovely. You can train climbers up the fence too such as jasmine, wisteria, and native hardenburgia. None of these plants are difficult to grow though the citrus will like some frost protection to start and I grew them all with great success in the bitter frosts, a number of floods and the scorching heat of the North East Victoria. As you can see, I like my garden to be a work horse not just a show pony. If I am investing my money and time then I want to be able to get perfume or produce from each plant.

Best to seek local advice as your climate and soil conditions will have a big influence on what is achievable. Your budget, your watering system, how much ongoing maintenance you are prepared to put in will also affect your design. Talk to your neighbours who have good gardens to get a better understanding of what works for them. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

Some comments, I hope they are helpful. Create a gravelled area for your fire pit. Laying a some sand, levelling off, a weed barrier and raking gravel is within the skill set of most handy people. Use treated timber for an edging to keep it neat. Buy a nice ready made steel fire pit. Buy some seating. Your planting lacks a scheme. Without a scheme your yard will not look put together the way professional landscaping does. Every plant has to be chosen for a purpose (texture, height, colour, privacy etc). You also have all your garden beds in a perimeter against the fence. That's fine for a starting point. But to make the place look inviting you need some garden beds in the yard too. Please avoid the common habit of putting shrubs in the middle of the lawn. It doesn't work well and also makes maintaining your lawn difficult. If you want to make say the entertaining area private from the kids play area a full garden bed is usually a better bet than just a shrub or two. By putting multiple shrubs of varying heights and a creeper in a larger section you create outdoor zones and properly define the area. What you really need to do is measure your yard, draw in your house and all paths and then start drawing in the entertaining area, the kids play area, the veggie patch etc. You will probably have to play around with the layout for a while to come up with something you like and works. Trust me, doing this first will save you a lot off $$ on plantings that don't work and you want to remove later. When you create garden beds do it with three heights. So something under 6" tall, something under 2ft tall and then something over 3ft. Not a definite rule but a good rule of thumb. By having multiple levels in your garden beds you create a more impactful and interesting garden. When gardens are meh, its usually because all the plantings are the same height and it looks flat. Take a look at these gardens to see what I mean.... Alright this fire pit is obviously professionally done, but what you need to look at is how the fire pit is clearly separated from the rest of the yard. The seating creates an outdoor room feel. But also if you look behind the seating there is also a large garden bed behind it. Although the scheme isn't finished my bet is that some tall screening plants are likely to be planted there to create a more intimate mood and shade from summer sun. Having garden beds define a feature really works. This is what I mean about having layers in your garden beds. If this yard was just a row of trees along the fence and then say a low hedge in this front bed it would look okay but not great. They have used different colours, textures and heights all in the same bed here to create something much more interesting. The planters in that corner also create height with the strappy plants. This is why you need to plan our your whole garden so you know that all the plants across the yard work together coherently.

Have you considered decking? You can use the different heights to your advantage the deck could be stepped or platforms. It looks like you already have a deck you can extend that and if you don’t use that entrance where the pillows are I’d get rid of it. I assume you have a doorway onto your current deck you could enlarge that with cantilevered doors which would open up the whole area.