I kind of like the wall. It's certainly oodles more attractive than the neighbors slatted chain link! I'd definately go with #2, because it will give you the best ability to screen the parking area, assuming the fence will be built at the top of the wall. Anything at the bottom of the wall will screen the wall, but not take care of the other sight line issues and will cede potential gardening space (and create a lovely little trash and crap collection area.

sowngrow: Well, I've been thinking. Since we now have a TWOFOLD question--what to do with a wall, AND a wall on a slope that may retain water, let's deal with the water retention first. You seem to have a solid concrete wall, so I wouldn't be nearly as concerned about it accepting (and holding paint) as I would a block wall. There are plenty of good water-based paints (thin, and clean up with water) that adhere to concrete. You have only to call your paint store and have them point out WHICH paint they recommend--and if they're guaranteed not to peel. People have been painting concrete steps and porches for years--not only concrete, BUT, concrete that receives heavy foot traffic, and most of it wears extremely well. You don't even have to worry about the foot traffic--you have a wall. You can mention the part about the water retention, but I doubt whether that will be a factor. If they think it is, they'll probably try and sell you a water-sealant paint (like you would paint a leaky basement with), and you MAY not need it. You be the judge--taking into consideration that paint that holds back water is 2 or 3 times as expensive as regular latex paint. If you're still concerned after conferring with your paint store, buy some latex paint (listening to their recommendations, somewhat) and paint the TOP of the wall. Let it stand a year or so--through your rainy season, and through Winter, and see if you're satisfied with it. If so, continue the pattern on the face of the wall. I'd certainly give it a try, if it were me. I'd at least talk to someone knowledgable at a good paint store--not someone in the paint department at Wal-Mart.

I am working on a project that sounds similar to what you have in mind. Sorry, I have no camera, so words will have to do. My yard is a long narrow valley, 300' X 80 wide, whose sides are three to six feet above the ground level in the center. There are high wooden fences along the crest of the hill on each long side. Last summer I arranged to get broken-concrete chunks from a paving company working in the area (I paid about $50/truckload to cover the labor of loading and unloading, even though I saved him the cost and gas of making dump runs) and used the three truckloads I thus obtained to make the first/outermost level of three terraced rows of beds I plan for the two long edges of my backyard. This first level consists of about 75 feet of walls about a foot thick, two to four feet in height, in long looping curves punctuated by a couple half-rounds that look like ruined castle towers, to bring the outermost beds level with the surrounding yards. These upper beds vary from four to twelve feet in width. I laid out hose to determine the curves (wider is always better!), used a Mantis tiller to dig foot-deep foundations, which I shoveled out and lined with landscape cloth and 6" of gravel, before I started dry-stacking the chunks. I was careful to slant the walls back into the hillside a bit, maybe six inches for every two feet of height. I used no mortar or other leveling gravel; instead it was important to me not to move on to the next stone until the one I was working on was well-balanced and unwilling to shift. If it wouldn't fit, I used a different chunk, or tried that chunk elsewhere. I was also careful to look to establish smooth linkages between stones on the face of the wall folks would see, even if there were jagged backsides. Whenever there was an available crack in the face of a row I was capping I tucked in an egg-shaped local stone or two, mostly stained orange by the local clay, for contrast with the rough rectangles of the grey concrete. I also built a wide flight of broken-concrete steps to climb the slope from the back yard to the side of the house, with a paved slope adjacent to allow wheelbarrow access to the side-yard beds. Once the beds were built, I filled them lasagna style: layers of leaf mulch, well-rotted horse manure, local clay tilled up with sand and leafmulch, and so on, tamping them down a bit every couple of feet of depth and making sure to fill the beds a foot or so above the walls to allow for further settling. It took an amazing amount of stuff to fill those beds, and about 2/3 of it was free for the hauling! I have planted the top row already: several flowering trees I got in the fall sales (purple plum, crepe myrtle, tree lilac, a Briotia horse chestnut) and tall shrubs like lilac, eleaginus, kerria and the like, shorter shrubs like goldmound spirea and dwarf blueberry in front, and all underplanted with lots of shade-lovers like hellebores, gentians, ferns, hostas. And bulbs, especially along the walls themselves. There are clumps of various daylily planted hard against the walls too. This summer's project is the next row -- 18"-high walls in counter-curves to create three garden rooms on the right-hand edge of the property, and incidentally refresh the iris beds along that side. I have to be done by May 22, when my local garden club is holding a planning meeting at my house... Oh yes. To cut the recurrent labor of edging/weedwhacking lawn along all those beds, I plan to plant a foot or so swathe of ajuga against the lawn-edge of the bottom-most walls. What d'you think? Does this help any? Lynn

Boston Ivy generally grows by crawling along the ground or up a wall. Don't let it get near your wooden fence in the shade. Propagating can be done in the spring through to the fall. If you go to your friend house and get down and look how ivy grows you'll see that it sends roots out at the leaf node. Prune a branch about six inches long from the root. Combine 3/4 plants together in a soil mixture of manure and sand, add some bone meal and tamp the soil down around the plants. Water. Now if you find enough branches with good roots no need to propagate. Dig the roots up with a shovel, prune back the roots and plant them in your yard. And water. Here is a link that might be useful: Propagating Perennials