Correcting past mistakes

Once upon a time there was a nice little side lawn.  It had gorgeous green grass and a big bush right smack in the middle.  Along came a crazy gardener who ripped up the pretty grass and made an ever expanding vegetable garden.  The garden got bigger and bigger every year.  One year she decided that it was big enough.  She put in a fence and brick pavers around the edge.  Then the crazy gardener got crazier and added even more garden.  The fence became a problem and the pavers got covered in dirt and weeds.  The pretty side yard had gotten messy and ugly.  So, the crazy gardener decided that she would fix it.

Here in the ugly fairy tale I show you the mess.  On the right is the older part of the garden.  You can just see the pavers that formed the edge and in the back the remaining fence that I'm having a hard time removing.  The cinder blocks on the left are part of the newer garden that I added 3 years ago.  Since then the weeds have gotten crazy and because the fence was in the way, I couldn't get to them properly.  Soil spilled out of the beds and made the problem worse on top of the pavers. 

This is the opposite side of the garden.  You now have the older part of the garden on your left.  Here I've removed the pavers and ripped out the grass and mess.  There is still so very much to do, but it is a start.  The end goal is to have all the pathways leveled so that I can get the lawnmower in.  I've considered putting hardware cloth down and piling several inches of wood chips in the paths, but have a feeling it would end up being a bigger headache in the end.  I welcome any feedback on that.  My worry is that the weeds will come up through the cloth and chips and create a problem. 

Some of the pavers are being moved to the back of the garden.  On the left are bushes that separate my garden from my neighbor's yard.  This is in the older part of the garden.  The new raised beds are making it much easier for me to keep up with things.  I'm hoping the pavers will keep the weeds at bay a bit.  They don't get any traffic and spillage from the beds is at a minimum here.  We'll see how it goes.  I have other plans for the remaining pavers that I'll show you another time.  I'm hoping to have a much prettier garden in the near future.  It's always been a joy for me, but it would be nice to have it look as nice as possible since it is so very visible.