I've done the slide thing on each side of my house over the 3 years I've lived here. I feel your pain. One slide resulted in a nasty sprain that took months to heal. I learned to stay off of the grass when wet and to stay off the leaves completely. Both conditions are hazardous. I live on the side of a mountain, really steep. And I'm on the north side so there is a fair amount of shade. I am slowly replacing the weeds with flowers. I use a lot of ground covers. Along side the driveway I've put fruit trees on one side and the veggie bed on the other side using 6 inch logs to create the tiers. Then I haul the compost up to them. That's been quite a job lately. The hill is clay and rocks so I dig a hole (hard work) place the compost and clay mixture in the hole use the stones from the hole to build a little edging and then plant my plants. Over all I have a ten year plan for getting the property to the place I want it. So far I'm not doing to badly at staying on schedule. I love the look of the uphill view from my livingroom. And it gets better every year. I'm no where near where others are but I'm enjoying the journey.

I made a real nice raised bed garden to plant some veggies in and then bought a bunch of potting soil at Walmart, finishing it off with many bags of EarthGro Potting Soil and EarthGro Steer Manure and "compost". My epiphany came too late after I'd spent a lot of time, and money when I checked with SourceWatch:http://www.sourcew atch.org/index.php/SourceWatch and googled in EarthGro. The following is what I found: "Paul Sellew is s a CEO of Harvest Power. Paul also founded Earthgro, which is the second largest producer of biosolids-based lawn and garden products. Paul was a senior executive with Synagro. He also founded International Process Systems, AllGro, Environmental Credit Corp, and Backyard Farms.[1]" Just in case you didn't know, biosolids is another name for sewage sludge. I don't know about you, but I am not going to eat vegetables grown in sewer sludge which contains God only knows what besides human crap. Now, I'm going to have to use my nice raised bed for Remedial plants such as sunflowers to decontaminate this soil if it's ever to be used again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytoremediation In view of this information, I'm wondering just how many of the non-organic fruits and vegetables are being grown in soil contaminated by biosolids, aks toxic sewage sludge and sold to Americans without our knowing it? " http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Biosolid... ; Biosolids is the Orwellian PR euphemism for toxic sewage sludge. The name was created and chosen in a PR contest by the lobby association for sewage industry, the Water Environment Federation (WEF). For more background see also The EPA's plan to bypass opposition to sewage sludge disposal and You say biosolids, I say sewage sludge. There is now a SourceWatch Portal on "Biosolids" Beyond biosolids, the sewage sludge industry now puts its waste product into bags labeled "compost" and promotes them through US Composting Council, BioCycle and other front groups and partners. Beginning in the 1990's the WEF, with the active encouragement and approval of the Environmental Protection Agency, pushed for the disposal of sewage sludge on farm land after bans were imposed on dumping it in the ocean or incinerating it. The name change of sewage sludge to "biosolids" was crucial the image makeover for sewage sludge, a classic industry-government campaign of greenwashing to change the public perception of toxic sewage sludge from an accurate one of "hazardous waste" to the misleading image of biosolids representing safe "beneficial reuse," responsible "recycling" and healthy "organic fertilizer," lately including the ruse of sewage sludge as "organic compost." A list of just some of the hazardous chemicals and pathogens found in sludge can be found in the article Sludge contaminants. Sludge contaminants include Dioxins and Furans, Flame Retardants, Metals, Organochlorine Pesticides, 1,2-Dibromo-3-Chloropropane (DBCP), Naphthalene, Triclosan, Nonylphenols, Phthalates, Nanosilver, and thousands more substances. "Sewage is the mix of water and whatever wastes from domestic and industrial life are flushed into the sewer.... We must note that, though the aim of sewage treatment is to produce clean water, it is never to produce 'clean' sludge. Indeed, the 'dirtier' the sludge - the more complete its concentration of the noxious wastes - the more the treatment has done its job.... very waste produced in our society that can be got rid of down toilets and drains and that can also be got out of the sewage by a given treatment process will be in the sludge. Sludge is thus inevitably a noxious brew of vastly various and incompatible materials unpredictable in themselves and in the toxicity of their amalgamation, incalculably but certainly wildly dangerous to life." [1]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I should have included a bit of back information that would better give orientation about my overall objectives. This first year or two, my main objective is to define the borders of the porch for my two large dogs. Until now, we had a pad and grass up to the pad (pad is the same pre- and post- porch construction) and they could exit the pad anywhere. Now, I want them to get used to exiting the pad onto the sidewalk in the center, because elsewhere will now be beds (and mud and mess and plants to be stomped). That's why I've bombed the front with the cinnamon ferns, to make a sort of visual railing while the dogs re-learn their exit, and while the beds age in with better soil and I get some other plants going (hostas, etc.). For the first year or two. It will be no problem to move the ferns around the corner when that time comes. I've always wanted a mass of ferns on this eastern facing side: My second objective is to create a streamlined mow line. The grass is maintained with a 60 inch deck mower so whatever bed edge I develop needs to allow the mower to move along it easily (I guess rather than undulating what I was trying to get to was smooth curves rather than corners, for mowing purposes). Third objective is LEAST maintenance from a hand weeding perspective. I know it won't be zero, but I'd like to have it controllable without being consuming. Fourth objective is "pretty." I'm not bothered with "curb appeal" in general as the only viewers are anyone coming up the driveway; this is not seen from the street. Eventually, I would like to grow and develop in a pretty foundation border. I got the ferns cheap and they will help my first objective. As I can, I will add more plants and soil amendments, so that is what I'm asking for - where do I EVENTUALLY want to go with this, etc. I appreciate all your inputs! Please add as you have thoughts!

The shapes, proportion and scale of the house in the photo are very challenging. The house is symmetrical, but the gable in the center does not have the same shape, pitch or fascia detail. The proportions of the house make adding a porch form (roof) challenging, as PPF suggests. Finally the scale of the porch and any columns should be sympathetic to the rest of the house. The columns in the first photo are much too small, while those in the second and third photos are much to bulky. A very careful study is need to see if and how a sympathetic porch may be added. If it was my house, I might be looking at a horizontal arbor or trellis type porch with appropriate detailed and scaled columns, rather than any sort of pitched roof. Google porch trellis or arbor for ideas. Good luck on your project.