Garden planning: Lawn, kitchen garden, and shrubs?

Hello dear house-building companions...
Now we are in the house and the weather is nice, so we will continue working in the garden first rather than taking care of the leftovers inside. :p
Here is our current plan for the garden.

1. What do you think of it in general? Is it sensibly designed and planned or completely out of place?
2. This weekend we want to sow grass first. The soil is already completely tilled and right now I’m clearing everything from weeds and stones, etc. What kind of base should I choose for the play area? Is grass sensible there or would bark mulch be better? What speaks for or against it?
3. The play area is supposed to be bordered by berry bushes, that’s what we want to do next. What exactly should be considered when planting raspberries, black and red currants, and gooseberries? Can they be planted next to each other? Do they all tolerate sun well? That spot is sunny almost all day.
4. In the vegetable garden I wanted to create a strawberry bed this year too. What nice options are there? I don’t like it when the beds just end in soil. Can you make a nice border somehow?

I would be very happy to receive many comments and ideas. :)

Best regards

By the way, only the area in the back will be worked on at first. So with lawn and play area this year. The rest then next year... Step by step it should look like in the plan someday....

Your south is by the street, right? And it is a hillside property? Is the north garden flat?

We only have play areas in the garden. I prefer regular play grass for this area. I find it more comfortable for walking barefoot than the bark mulch.

We had our garden initially laid out up to the grass seeding by a landscape gardener. The lawn was sown very sparsely by the landscape gardener, with the note that the grass plants would then spread better. Even though the neighbors were initially very skeptical, the lawn did indeed become denser than others (almost like a carpet). However, apparently good and durable grass was also used.

1. Others are welcome to judge. I am glad that I managed to design ours reasonably well. Before we started, we first marked the areas with strings to determine the size of flower beds, etc.

2. I wouldn't use bark mulch in the play area. Children run from the slide to the climbing frame. In my opinion, that shifts the mulch. Better to have a durable lawn.

3. Since we have just planted raspberries, I know that it says sunny to semi-shady for them. For the other berries, I suspect something similar.

4. We have just bordered flower beds with rounded lawn edging stones like these because, similar to your play area, we designed the bed with slight curves. With some sand under the lawn edging stones and a rubber mallet, it went down quite quickly. For weed control, we applied a weed fleece or bark mulch onto the bed.

At your place, south is at the street, right? And it’s a sloping property? Is the north garden flat?

Yes, exactly, south is the street. Both the south and north gardens are flat. The slope is bridged at the sides of the house. Although you can't really call the north garden a typical north garden. Look, I just took this photo. Most of the "north garden" is in the sun all day.

We only have play areas in the garden. I prefer normal play lawn for this area. I find it more comfortable for barefoot walking than bark mulch.

Oh, quite a few people have told me that already. We have also bought a durable sports lawn for the entire garden. But somehow, at friends' places, the area where the climbing frame, slide, and swing stand is always so muddy... Hm... Are there any other alternatives?

We first had our garden laid out by a landscape gardener up to the grass sowing stage.
The lawn was sown very sparingly by the landscape gardener, with the note that this way the grass plants can spread better. Even though the neighbors were initially very skeptical, the lawn actually became denser than others (almost like a carpet). Apparently, good and durable lawn was used.

1. Others are welcome to judge. I’m just glad that I managed to design our garden reasonably well.
Before we started, we marked the areas with strings to set the size of beds, etc.

2. I wouldn’t do bark mulch in the play area. Children run from the slide to the climbing frame. In my opinion, that shifts the mulch.
Better to have a durable lawn.

3. Since we just planted raspberries, I know they need sunny to semi-shady spots. I suspect the other berries are similar.

4. We have just bordered flower beds with rounded lawn edging stones like these, since we designed the bed somewhat rounded like your play area. With some sand under the edging stones and a rubber mallet, it was quite quick to lay. For weed control, we applied weed fabric or bark mulch on the bed.

Okay, I have to remember the little seed. We are currently clearing and cleaning up. The seed is supposed to go on this weekend. How long did it take to become such a nice "carpet"? The ground was just filled and leveled here since November. Although we were the landscape gardeners ourselves with a rented excavator... ;) So my husband had a great time. :) But as many here have noticed, we’re big DIY people anyway... We like to try everything. It’s basically a matter of "honor". :D

We seeded in mid-September last year and I mowed the lawn twice more in the old year. I think you should probably plan for about a month without the dear little children running all over it too much. But maybe it will go faster in the spring. Especially at the beginning, always water well.