Links to the OP's photos: Looking straight out the back door: Looking left: Looking right: Spade-it, how far above ground level is the deck? How far is it from the deck to the back fence? What parts of the perimeter fence (if any) are on your property? Are you allowed to make the fence taller? For instance, if you could add a couple of feet of lattice to the top of the lower sections of fence, the future clematis could grow higher, and that would give you more privacy. Are your privacy concerns on all sides of the yard, or only the south? What exactly is behind you? Part of the neighbor's backyard? Golf course? Park? With the current economy, I'm assuming no one would be building more houses there in the near future. Do you know how much vertical drop there is from the back of the house to the bottom of the back fence? I think it would help us get a better idea of the slope to see a photo taken right at the southern fence and looking north, showing the ground from the house to the fence. It looks -- from what I can see -- as if most of the slope is in the last few feet by the fence. If you'd like your photos to show up in your post, I understand you can insert Photobucket's html code in your post. If you see the photo in the Preview, it will show up in your actual post. Another Photobucket code should give you a working link or a thumbnail photo (again, if the link works in the Preview, it will work in the actual post). [I use a free Firefox add-on, BBCodeXtra, which adds the correct code to make an address a working link, post photos (as ideasshare did), change text to italics and other stuff, plus a few things I have no idea what they do. I have no idea if MS has an equivalent function for IE.] Please ignore ideasshare: obviously his/her plans are not to scale, nor are they relevant to your problem slope.

Charming! It would be nice to swing among fragrant blooms - maybe surround the swing or edge somehow with something like roses, honeysuckle or a vine to ramble over - sweet autumn clematis makes such a wonderful wall of vine and is nice to look forward to later in the season. But it's wonderful and I agree it is best to wait til you have the existing area finished so you don't block a view that you want to maintain. Love the big pots. I have a pair of big terra cotta pots on my front porch - mine were nothing fancy I just bought them at a local store but they've been there for 20 years and I don't even bring them inside in the winter - they site under the shelter of the roof so I just let them get bone dry before winter. I love the way they have aged slightly and I added the obelisk trellis things in them that have rusted to a nice aged quality. They are sortof between seasons right now I had them full of pansies earlier and now have added a big dahlia in the center and the licorice plant and purple salvias for summer. :) Big real terra cotta is a good thing, though. :)

How about using it as a chalkboard wall? I like the idea of having the chalkboard framed on the wall so it looks more like a picture than just a whole wall of chaulkboard paint.

Are we talking about top soil? If so, I'd be offering it for SALE to a contractor. Offering it on Craigslist or Freecycle is also a good idea. When I have extra soil or "dirt," I've used it to augment the grade around my foundation so that it slopes away from the house. That tends to erode and it's so important. I also use it to create mounds on which to plant new trees and shrubs that could use more root run and drainage on my ledge rocky property. It can give them an extra foot or two or three of height, which is equivalent to a few years headstart for a screen. But I think you're looking for more fun, creative ideas, which I hope will be forthcoming. May we offer more fun ways to spend that 7,000?