Need help with sloped backyard
Hi there,
My wife and I have purchased a new home and the backyard is in need of a makeover.
Picture of current yard:
The deck is going to fall over as it has very little support as is. We are undecided if we want to keep it but if there's a way to save it within the design that would be great.
The grading is slightly downwards away from the house, so no issues there.
Our short-term goal is to have a nice flat backyard with lots of grass for kids/dogs to play. Our idea is for 2 retaining walls running perpendicular to the house, something like this perhaps:
Current deck isn't big enough for a dining table, so something like this would address it.
We're looking for other suggestions/improvements to our idea as it's the only thing we can really come up with. We're also not sure how to incorporate the current deck into this plan. The tree to the left of the deck will be removed by the time we move in so there is room for a deck extension the other way.
Any help would be appreciated.
Comments (30)
Craig
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoRelated Discussions
Steep backyard slope toward home - zone 7 - need help
Comments (5)d keith, The idea of planting on a hill is both to prevent erosion, which is really important, and to look really nice. Full sun, zone 7, great for erosion, crape myrtle, buy more of them. They are wonderful, they have strong roots, you already have one there, and will provide a little bit of shade, which most plants will appreciate since you have sun all day. They will be on sale now, so buy more crape myrtles, they are anchors. Buy a chase tree, gorgeous blue flowers, no maintaince, drought tolerant, loves sun. Get at least one chaste tree. When you plant it, add some composted cow manure in the whole since you have clay, for the chaste tree. Evergreen magnolia is wonderful for a hill! Look for them at big box stores or nurseries now. Their roots spread out, and they grow great on hills. They are easy to care for, love sun and are evergreen. Get at least one of those, you will love the fragrant flowers in spring. The reason for the trees is important, they are the first line of defense against the pouring rain. It first hits the trees, they provide cover. Then you look for shrubs, a medium cover, like roses, which are wonderful and hardy, and also love the heat and sun. So buy some medium sized roses. You can use a soaker hose to water them. Also ornamental grasses are beautiful, and sort of medium size. Grasses need water though, so if you put out a soaker hose, include them in the path. The junipers are a wonderful suggestion also. there are ground cover junipers, you can plant them here and there, they are evergreen, which is good, they are ground covers, so they will also help the ground stay where it is. St. Johns Wart, sedum, ajunga, daylilies, little spirea shrubs, just a few suggestions as to some plants that you can plant around on the hill and will take fast. Good Luck to you....See MoreNeed help landscaping backyard with slope and erosion
Comments (8)Are the trees' roots exposed or are those mostly rocks? You want something that stays close to the ground to absorb the impact of the water. With shade your choices may be somewhat limited. Vinca is ubiquitous around here. You can plant other little plants in between. Various wild geraniums are popular around here, and liriope, perhaps some ferns. I had a plant called sweet woodruff covering the ground in the shade at my last place, very pretty in the spring. Some other classics are small bleeding hearts and ajuga, (actually anything in the mint family, like native mountain mint or horsemint which you can grow from seed) and perhaps some thymes although they need a bit more sun, also woodland strawberry and virginia creeper are natives that are used and there is a dwarf goat's beard that is beautiful. Yarrow is good in partly sunny areas. Someone on here once told me about creating little pockets of good soil surrounded by rocks. I see you are good with the idea of trying to spread that water from your drainpipes out as much as you can instead of concentrating it. A good thing to do is create pockets where the rainwater can be absorbed to control the erosion, but the trees roots run contrary to that objective. I would just try planting things and see what takes off. That's what I do on my hillsides, just keep trying to get vegetation established. We use natural wood chips too, to hold down the soil....See MoreNarrow, sloping backyard on a corner needs HELP
Comments (13)"The large deck ... is structurally sound, the boards are not in good shape." What exactly does "not in good shape" mean? ... that the surface is not good but otherwise they are OK ...? That sounds like a couple of decks that came with a house I once owned. They were functional but ugly from years of weathering and no attention whatsoever. They were transformed into completely acceptable, nice actually, merely with pressure washing, a quick, coarse sanding, and two or three coats of deck paint (not stain) applied with a paint roller. It was not a huge, horrible job and they looked almost as good as new. They were much easier to keep clean with a hard paint surface. The cost to fix it this way, if DIY, would be a couple hundred bucks. If not DIY, a few hundred ... vs. $17K. If you could get another dozen years our of your deck and have it look nice, too, would that be acceptable? Landscaping is a discipline where one must not ignore site conditions or impose unrealistic solutions if they expect to produce a result that is pleasant, lasting and maintainable. I question the overall direction of making a small porch with steps down to where all the landscape features would be. This seems intrinsically less useful than would be having a decent sized deck immediately off of the main living space. I see a grill but not a dining table. Where does the outdoor dining happen? If the kitchen is separated from outdoor dining by a full flight of steps, it will surely be made much more inconvenient. But the real deal-breaker for me is the imposition of "no groundcover," which is driven by unrealistic beliefs based on emotion, when the site itself is demanding groundcover for practical reasons: there is slope and there is shade. Are we really going to spend $50K in order to change this into flat, sunny ground? It's going to require significant retaining walls & grading in addition to all the other new hardscape and planting. On the subject of husband's allergies to pine, I presume you're talking about allergies to pine pollen (since contact with the plant itself can be easily avoided)? Getting rid of the pines is going to make virtually no difference if there are other pines in the neighborhood or region. During the pollen season, which lasts for a couple of weeks, it can blow statewide and there's no escaping it. One's best hope of avoiding it is to stay indoors as much as possible during that time. I think you should begin with the budget because it will determine what is possible vs. what is fantasy. Re-contemplate the goals ... not how to achieve them, but simply the objectives themselves ... what activities do we want to do outside? How convenient do we want them to be? How private should it be? ... etc....See MorePlease help me with my sloped lake lot back yard!
Comments (7)Some thoughts on two projects: One: What is the most practical path from the point of origin at the house to get to your dock -- the path you now use ? Would that path begin at the corner of the house closest to the yard toys -- either a straight or curved path -- until you get to the toys and then from the toys beyond them to the dock? That walk path is where you should begin to create dirt steps about 4'-6' wide by using railroad ties strategically placed across the path as temporary small retaining walls to create level or gently sloping "steps" between the rail road ties -- digging to throw dirt above or below the railroad ties as needed. As you walk, you might take two or three steps on each dirt step you create. As you use the dirt steps you can see what steps work best and what steps need to be adjusted before you invest in blocks or stone for more permanent retaining walls for your grass covered dirt steps). Two: you might consider putting a retaining wall all along the lower point of the yard where you usually cease to mow -- below the hill. Literally dig a deep ditch for a footing/foundation along that line above which you cannot safely mow. You could then put rebar in place and have concrete poured into the ditch (BEFORE before you remove the dirt from below the ditch/concrete wall so the sides of the ditch can serve as a form for your retaining wall) -- before you throw any that dirt from below the ditch to above it. Once your poured concrete has set up, you can add a bock wall atop it, then begin to remove the dirt from below the concrete retaining wall to above the concrete retaining wall, adding other layers of concrete blocks to the wall as you are able to reach it from either above or below until you've achieved a reasonably level area both above and below the wall. You could then face the poured concrete with stone or brick if you choose.. DO make sure the bottom of the ditch you dig is lower that the ground level you want for the lower flatter area below the poured concrete retaining wall.. A ditch dug with a back hoe or other equipment will be wider that what you might dig by hand and take more concrete to fill but with the wider concrete wall you're pouring, you're building strength into your retaining wall. Do post some after pics to show us what you've done....See MoreCraig
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoCraig
8 years agoDo you have recommendations on types of questions that we can ask an architect to find out if he understands grading and retaining wall construction?
I have a couple of closer up pictures of the deck from our home inspection report unfortunately the quality is not great though.
I will get better pictures in 2 weeks when we return.The door from the deck leads into the garage. There is currently no way to exit the house on the main floor into the backyard. Most of our in/out traffic would be through the lower level door from the basement. Which itself is very undesirable but I don't think there is much we can do about that without major renovations. We are also finishing the basement concurrently and we'll explore the options of patio or garden doors. We do not *need* a deck. Basically we would like an area for a bbq, lounging, and dining. If it was to be saved then yes we would want it to be connected to lower level (we'd likely have the bbq up there with a couple of chairs in the shade for really hot days). I don't really think there's anything wrong with current deck, just that it needs some support to keep it from shifting.
In addition which I forgot to include in the original post is that there are 2 septic tank covers near the house, I've tried to highlight them in a picture below:
We'll need to have a clever way to hide but still have them accessible.
l pinkmountain
8 years agol pinkmountain
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoCraig
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agomoliep
8 years ago
PROYardvaark
8 years agoHave the trees near the right corner (as looking from back lot line) of house been evaluated? One looks to be leaning precariously and a couple of the others look a bit wrecked. Since their root systems would be in the retaining wall zone, the wall would need to consider them. If the trees have, or are issues, and are done away with now, it unencumbers the retaining wall design somewhat. In general, I like your idea of the two retaining walls, more or less perpendicular to the back of house and think it is the practical solution. It seems like at the left side, the wall could encircle the deck, and be larger than the deck (a la base of wedding cake) it would give an opportunity to conceal below the deck with planting, instead of concealing it with skirting only. There could be a landing at the base of deck steps, which leads to steps that descend to the lower level. The illustration is a scheme, not a prescription, showing how a retaining wall system could incorporate angles that increase its interest and make the wall vastly stronger. (Parts of the wall work to support other parts of it.) Poured reinforced concrete would be super strong. If faced with faux stone, it could look terrific. There could be opportunities to incorporate multi-level tiers into the wall, but I wouldn't do it in areas where it would encroach into patio space if that space is needed. You'd need to figure out how much patio and deck space (square footage) you need before the designing begins.
Craig thanked YardvaarkCraig
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoRegarding the trees, there are 2 on the right side (looking at back of the house) that we plan to take down as they growing over the house. That would still leave a large one but we can definitely consider taking down if it'll interfere with the design. I think preference would be to keep it, however we would need to see it in the summer to decide for sure.
We love the design you came up with, that's exactly what we had in mind and seems very practical and budget friendly.
Here's something we came up with this weekend, pardon my poor paint skills :). This idea would involve tearing up the deck and making a larger upper patio made of interlocking brick with stone stairs down to a lower patio made of pea gravel/flag stone and a fire pit. The lines in my mock up are terrible, I have no design skills so I can't come up with lines that flow as well as what you did. The components are there though :). The green x's are flowers and green lines indicated the hill garden.
Upper patio idea (interlock with stone stairs down):
Lower patio (mix of pea gravel/flag stone and interlock):
Fire pit:
We started to think of pea gravel because we think it would work well with the septic tank covers and if something terrible happened we could still dig up and not destroy our patio.
We also like the idea of possibly using only 1 retaining wall and having a hill garden on the right side. We're not sure how that would work with the grading, I would think having it slope towards the house is poor but maybe there is some sort of drain we can implement to have the water carried away from the house. It sure would be beautiful to be sitting on the patio looking at a small hill garden. The hill garden/fire pit can be incorporated into both designs.
Another alternative we thought about a bit was a fountain, we are near a busyish road so the addition of a fountain may drown out some road noise. It's probably much more maintenance/upfront costs then we wanted to endure though.
We're slowly starting to become overwhelmed with possibilities!
Craig
7 years agoWell it`s been a while but we finally have a design complete. I was wondering if you guys had any comments on it. Plants and gardens have been removed so that it is easier to visualize.
Craig
7 years agoCraig
7 years agoThe design has been modified, we removed the seating area and expanded on the deck a bit more.
We plan to build the firepit above ground and we will put something over it to use as a table so it will double as a sitting area/fire pit area.
This should address the issue with blocking the viewers view.
- PRO
Yardvaark
7 years agoTo me, it seems as there is less conflict in it now. Still, I am bugged to bits by the landing area of the steps. The landing area seems compromised and it's relationship to lawn seems like an upside down prioritization. In general, I think hardscape is dominant and planting is subordinate. One should make the landing be what it needs to be and make the lawn adapt to it. It may be more evident if you remove the lawn from the picture and replace it with the grey stuff that you have everywhere else. Then one ends up wondering why the landing is the way it is. At least, I do. It looks suddenly malformed and shrunken.
At another location, the way the stone path passes by the last "block" (surrounding fire pit) on its way to the back door seems awkward. At ground level it creates a small triangle of whatever-the-grey-stuff is. (Gravel?) The small triangle should be eliminated.
Craig thanked Yardvaark Craig
7 years ago- PRO
Yardvaark
7 years ago Craig
7 years ago- PRO
Yardvaark
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agothis is an example of one possible fix strategy.
Edit: I'm not saying this is complete, refined or the like. It's just a quick, dirty example of resolving a shrunken landing.
Craig
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoWork has started on the backyard:
We are going with basically our last design except much less armor stone on the right side of the house, just what is necessary.
We plan to complete the deck, stairs, and retaining walls this year. The rest (firepit, path from backdoor to bottom of stairs and planting) will get done later.
Our dog loves supervising all the work going on!
Craig
7 years agoYardvaark, regarding the stones you added, that would be on top of our drain field. We avoided that on purpose. Diagram below shows where it's located:
Yardvaark