Vegetables need maximum sunshine so, as long as you're happy to have them in view, leave them there. Raised beds can be made more decorative purely by being well built.
If you want to save money, why not lift and recycle the existing slabs? Buy, borrow or hire a Karcher pressure washer for a day and see how they look when cleaned up. It can also help remove grouting between slabs and help you loosen them. Might save you splashing out on new ones for the new terrace but would also make them much better for using between raised veggie beds if that's what you prefer.
Wrapping a bed round the shed and continuing alon the boundaries would certainl look more cohesive. The RHS website has a feature which allows you to seek suitable plants depending on aspect, sun, shade, soil, drainage, exposure etc. Google "RHS+find a plant"
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Indian sandstone paving was certainly expensive when we bought it but that was 14 years ago! Maybe it's gone down in price since but I agree with Obelixx on ethical grounds, best now avoided. You can get some nice paving these days so I suggest you have a look in your nearest B&Q or garden centre to see what you might like. The other design ideas sound good.
Just taken some more photos. Hopefully will put it in context a bit more.
Where the bench is, this gets the morning sun. Then around lunchtime the sun moves around the side of the house (where the gravel is). Paving would be good here too because I wash my bicycle or saw firewood that I keep in the outhouse (by the water butt and compost bins).
View from dining room window.
I put some sleepers here to create a bit of 'interest'. I also sit here when I tend to the vegetables. You can see that the hard-standing is a concrete base where the old garage used to be. This is where I envisaged the paving would go.
You can see that - because the garden is on the lowest level - it is quite shaded. Even though the left corner is south-facing.
Looking down from the car space towards the east.
Theres a lot of gravel. Ultimately Id like to do something with this and the front garden - but I think thats a topic/decision for another day!
I think you could lift those slabs at the end of the concrete and re-use them to cover it. If they won't cover all of it space them a bit and use gravel in the gaps to tie it all to your other gravelled areas.
Depending on what's under the slabs you can then dig out any crud and extend your lawn area or else put a retaining edge round it and put more gravel on there and use it for more raised beds, pots, another seating/dining area or dig out plating pockets and have a gravel garden with plants like dry feet or even dig out for a pond.
Indian stone involves a huge carbon footprint in terms of mileage as well as terrible conditions for those who produce it so please, if you must have new stone, go for reconstituted Yorkstone or something else made in the UK.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I like Cambridgerose's plan of putting perennial beds along the field boundary. Damp cool conditions - there are so many options... Astilbes, Rodgersias... Miscanthus... Persicaria amplexicaulis, Filipendula rubra 'Venusta', Rudbeckia maxima... Sanguisorbas... Thalictrum 'Black Stockings'. I think blocks of beautiful but natural looking perennials, and some ornamental grasses, would look extremely nice.
I would fill the entire area between the patio and the fence with planting, but I get that not everyone's as much of a plantaholic as me!
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
I agree with Obelixx's idea of lifting the existing slabs if possible and reusing them over the concrete - would make it look a lot more coherent and be cheaper. You might have to chip off any old cement on the underneath but that could be fairly easily done with a chisel and hammer (wearing goggles of course) and again would save you money rather than get your landscaper to do it. Then you'd have more dosh left to pretty up the garden and for plants.
Would use the 3xisting concrete although vastly reduce the size as it seems disproportionate. Would also overlay concrete with a dyed paveroc. Very easy to shape curves with thin plywood. Can use same principle for footpath to but perhaps form circular disc stepping stones? Use existing slabs around the raised beds. Would probably have quarter cheese shaped flower bed to right of steps using dimensions of retaining walls👍. Did my own garden last year on a beg and borrow principle and found that my plan evolved continuously as each task changed the complection and with that the plan in my mind
Posts
If you want to save money, why not lift and recycle the existing slabs? Buy, borrow or hire a Karcher pressure washer for a day and see how they look when cleaned up. It can also help remove grouting between slabs and help you loosen them. Might save you splashing out on new ones for the new terrace but would also make them much better for using between raised veggie beds if that's what you prefer.
Wrapping a bed round the shed and continuing alon the boundaries would certainl look more cohesive. The RHS website has a feature which allows you to seek suitable plants depending on aspect, sun, shade, soil, drainage, exposure etc. Google "RHS+find a plant"
The other design ideas sound good.
Where the bench is, this gets the morning sun. Then around lunchtime the sun moves around the side of the house (where the gravel is). Paving would be good here too because I wash my bicycle or saw firewood that I keep in the outhouse (by the water butt and compost bins).
View from dining room window.
I put some sleepers here to create a bit of 'interest'. I also sit here when I tend to the vegetables. You can see that the hard-standing is a concrete base where the old garage used to be. This is where I envisaged the paving would go.
You can see that - because the garden is on the lowest level - it is quite shaded. Even though the left corner is south-facing.
Looking down from the car space towards the east.
Theres a lot of gravel. Ultimately Id like to do something with this and the front garden - but I think thats a topic/decision for another day!
Depending on what's under the slabs you can then dig out any crud and extend your lawn area or else put a retaining edge round it and put more gravel on there and use it for more raised beds, pots, another seating/dining area or dig out plating pockets and have a gravel garden with plants like dry feet or even dig out for a pond.
Indian stone involves a huge carbon footprint in terms of mileage as well as terrible conditions for those who produce it so please, if you must have new stone, go for reconstituted Yorkstone or something else made in the UK.
I would fill the entire area between the patio and the fence with planting, but I get that not everyone's as much of a plantaholic as me!