stevega - the top of the hill is over 5ft from the flat area - I am 5 ft and it is taller than me when I stand on the flat areas. I guess the retaining wall would be more so if we decided to excavate the hill. Frankie - I will try an take that picture tomorrow - I do think that the railing is holding us in - but we don;t want to redo the deck until we have a better idea if we are clearning the hill or not. I want to be able to walk out the sliding glass door and right onto the deck and I was thinking more about something that was more of a platform with some wide step areas or steps spanning the entire platform. Maybe curving around when we first go out the door and opening more to grass and have the deck more to the left. (does that make sense?) I agree that I am not sure what will make it more open -but I just want to feel like I am utilizing more areas of the yard. My husband was thinking about one of the boulder walls - if we did something like that. I wonder if clearing the top area and taking out the stumps will lower it a lot and then we can have a slight grassy hill up to cleared area. Have it be much more slight. Thanks for all your ideas and comments. Ruth

I see one bumped out bed (next to the neighbor's house) that looks like it would be suitable for a small tree (the kind you make from a large shrub -- burning bush for example.) Other than that, for low budget landscape improvements, I'd take every bare spot of ground and plant annuals. Some can come from already blooming bedding plants that you purchase at any home improvement store or Walmart. Others can come from seeds. Obtain information from other forums about which annuals are easy to grow and put out a good show. I've been promoting corn lately as it qualifies as a handsome, fast solution, if one needs something tall and narrow. It can also make a hedge. Annuals will fold at the end of their life span (one season) but they provide a cheap way to buy time while you are planning your permanent landscape. For that, you ought to start working on a base plan, which shows all the permanent features of the area in map form. (Keep it as simple as possible.) Use copies of it to explore/brainstorm various ideas. Since you have a large amount of concrete, consider some LARGE planters ... especially low ones. It is better to you fewer large planters than a bunch of small planters, which require much more maintenance and don't put out as good a show.

Hmm not a kid friendly back yard for sure. Running a jack hammer is really not all that impossible and given your concrete is chunked with all the lines I see you could easily start near the grass and see how much you want to break up /remove. You are lucky you will have defined places to stop with no weird chopped edges given the blocking I see. What do you want for your child? I see all these super expensive play sets--and given the lifestyles of most families very little time at home to play on it is available. Back in the day we got away with a LARGE sand box, a swing under a raised deck (sand box was under the deck) and a Little Tyke's large climbing/slide apparatus. The wait a year and see is tough as kids grow fast and they need what they need NOW. If we are talking toddler #1 right now I would be hitting the garage sales and buying every riding toy I could find. We had a fleet of those things and quite a race way in our unfinished basement!! All that cement is premium rolling space. A kiddie pool will fit in one of your grassed areas...optimize what you have!!

I agree with Chris’ suggestion. I had to do some quick and cheap fix ups for an appraisal. The area around the utilitarian looking RV shelter over the parking pad made it look out of place and the grass around it just looked patchy and scruffy. My crew and I measured and marked the grassy area then used pegs and string to make a guide to dig around the concrete pad. I used cheap tarps from the hardware or dollar store and cut them to fit a 4 inch depth but you may want it deeper depending if the dogs want to dig. Dig up the area making sure the cuts I into the sod are straight — I used an edger tool (also one of my best investments for keeping things tidy) to cut along the string guide lines. Lay the tarps down and contact a local gravel yard directly because they are usually cheapest. They may be able to deliver but they will also help calculate how much you’ll need. You’ll measure depth x width x length for yardage of gravel but get Chris’ recommendation 3/4” is nice and easy on the pups paws. Once its down you can rake it into the area and it’s going to be awesome until you afford to get pavers or concrete or bricks. Good luck…PS also think about a covered porch on a larger landing so you have a good resting area for when the dogs and people come in from outside fun.