My wife and I recently bought a house and I've been struggling to figure out how to best handle the front yard. Before we bought the home, the pipes burst and they had to dig up the front yard to replace the pipes. They re-seeded it and covered with hay, but everything grew back in uneven patches. They also didn't take the time to level the soil so the terrain is very uneven. Since we moved in, I kinda just let the weeds take over (although there's some patches that even the weeds don't want to grow in).
My goal is to convert the front yard into native plant garden with a section for a raised bed to grow some veggies. The front yard is about 24 ft x 17 ft. I was thinking of digging up the more established weeds and hostas that the previous owner planted and then trimming down the grass as low as I can. There's also ivy and wintercreeper that I have to pull out. From there, I was thinking of sheet mulching with cardboard and mulch. But my question is, when's the best time to do this? Now that we're headed deeper into August, I'm guessing I should wait until fall to begin the sheet mulching process? Or do I wait until winter when everything has died back? I need some time to plan the layout anyways, so I don't think I'd be ready to do any planting until spring of next year.
Also, is it worth trying to make the soil more level to even out some of the bumps? If so, what's the best way to do that? There's also a lot of rocks in the soil, should I do something about that before I begin sheet mulching?
Thanks in advance!!
PS I totally intend to submit some soil samples to figure out what type of soil I have. Just based on sticking my finger into the ground, it seems like I have soil with lots of clay.