Garden Crossroads

I find myself at a gardening crossroads concerning our vegetable garden.    Twelve years ago, we chose this sunny spot for herbs and vegetables.   Hubby brought in some nice light soil.     A few years later we lined it with some old, old, OLD  railroad ties and then subdivided the beds with some large salvaged square posts.    Those bed dividers also serve as paths and work spaces.   We can reach any part of the planting beds from one of these paths.   This all worked fairly well until the wood began to rot.   Now there are spots where I really don't want my grandchildren - or my mother - strolling.

This is what the garden looked like at the beginning of this spring growing season. 
You can see that land just outside one edge slopes down to the pastures.   The two closest beds contain herbs and the farthest bed houses the asparagus.  I think we planted the asparagus in 04 or 05 and are now getting a pretty steady supply of spears.   The compost bins are housed in another bed behind a small trellis.   There is a keyhole garden directly behind the bench.

  As much as I love growing herbs and vegetables, I have found that I work really hard getting things planted and then forget (i.e. ignore) this edible garden.   Which leads me to my big dilema - what direction do I want to take here?  

• This fall, we will be installing live oak trees along the pasture fenceline -  should we extend the shade tree planting and make this a nice shady space?
• Simple rectangular raised beds?  
• Something a little more naturalistic.  I was reading another gardening blog, Hoe & Shovel, and her edible garden is as beautiful as the rest of the landscape.   We have been ammending this soil for the past twelve years - I hate to waste all that effort on sod . . .

Thankfully, it's just to darn hot right now to take on any big projects - so, I'll just mull this over a bit longer.  Guess I need to begin a pros and cons list of the options. . . .