Anyone recommending large soft leaved woodland habitat plants such as Hostas or Beschornerias for high desert conditions obviously doesn't have a clue about desert landscaping. Similarly thinking that a pond/waterfall feature so exposed to the elements seems futile, or at the least expensive in time and money to keep functioning. Water features would make much more sense in a protected from wind and brutal sun within a courtyard garden. Erosion control in high desert conditions is as much about wind erosion and the sporadic torrential cloudburst which dumps intense rain over a short period of time. As such, local professional expertise and knowledge of your soil type is critical for efficiently addressing the best approach for ersion control. I'd recommend using adapted native and hardy exotic plants of lowest water use to stabilize those slopes with some grading to bank rainfall to percolate into the soil where possible. Again, visiting local water agency water conservation demonstration gardens would be most useful in helping be more pragmatic about landscaping your high desert back yard.

Melissa; Sounds like an interesting project! On hillsides dropin pools are not ideal. When installing on a hillside property the installation of retaining walls and or engineered concrete walls is normally advised. Gunite pools are much stronger with more rebar and more tensile strength than dropin pools. This combination of walls and gunite pool provides the strength needed to handle the asymetric pressure put on the pool installed properly into a hillside. For you investment in money you are better off spending more money to have it installed correctly and get a return on your investment than to spend money on a pool that will crack and leak within the first couple of years due to the ground pressure. We strongly advise you to consult with a soil engineer and a qualified landscape design build company. They can provide you with infromation to make your investment a lasting one.

Because in Wi you cannot automatically assume acidic soil. Actually in New England you cannot automatically assume acidic soil. One of the great revelations (to me) in William Cullina's books is the number of New England natives that are described as preferring neutral to alkaline soil.

IMO that hill will need some terracing if you are planning on enlarging that patio . You will require a reatining wall with drainage ot the patio will be full of mud everytime it rains. The fences are kind of interesting but do not really serve a purpose . This is agreat projet to do DIY but you need some pro advice. These pics show a slope similar to yours where we cut back into it and did a reatining wall done for perfect drainage , lots of ahrd work but doable and the bonus is spaces you can actually use. The hill you see behind the railing is really too steep to be useable without going into my neighbors property. BTW the ivy has now completely covered the wall