Thanks for all the comments!

We are saving for a bigger family home, and I think enlisting the help of a designer for that garden is a certainty for the next place. Im desperate to get a nice big garden and sit down and research, plan and design it. But with my current place, its been a case of creating something presentable, flexibly and inexpensively.

The pergola is a brilliant idea though!!

Ive attached a couple more shots! My mum is responsible for hacking the conifers at the back to pieces!! Its taken 4 years for some green new growth to reappear to possible fill it back in!!