Budget?

Sounds like a fun idea! One piece of advice I have is to consider having the plants in containers. That way if it turns out they don’t do well in that spot it’s easy to move them or replace them. I keep most of my plants in the black nursery plastic container as a liner and then put that into the pretty ceramic type planters. I did a tiny rock garden in front of my patio a few months ago and I am still loving how it turned out. I’ll post pics when I get out there later today.

The accompanying photo gives us almost nothing to go on so any advice is going to be very general. You have a couple of options:

1. Come back with more detail in the form of additional photos that provide a clear picture of what exists and/or a rough sketch of the property layout. Provide a geographic location, the amount of sun the area receives and your observations of the soil conditions.
2. Hire a local landscape designer for at least a consultation, if not a full plan. It is a modest investment that will not break the budget (maybe a few hundred bucks at most) and in fact could save you money and time by eliminating a lot of trial and error if attempting to do this all on your own without professional input.

I found this on HGTV to illustrate what I'm trying to describe above. Note the limited color palette and repetition.

Here are some pics of what I did. Not sure if it helps you at all. I love the stones I found. I think they were called artisan pebbles or artisan river rock or something like that. Expensive though so probably just for some select areas/accents.

These are beautiful

Jaja, love your house paint color!

Very southwestern, and makes such a beautiful background for the plants, especially that blue agave.

Here are some more pictures of the back yard and inspiration

Adding more pictures to give you all a better idea of what I am talking about.

1. Pathway connecting sideyard stairs to stairs going up the deck. I am think8ng of using flagstone and ground cover in between flag stone.

2. Fountain on opposite side of the deck.

3. Radiating pattern of stone, gravel, succulent, grasses etc. starting from the fountain to deck end. May be a blue color stone or glass dry creek.

4. Low water, low maintenance ground covers, color full grasses, low water plants etc.to be designed in this area.

5. All to be mainly viewed from up above the deck.

6. Including patterns I am inspired by of the lay out of different materials.

More lay out inspiration for backyard

Thanks Jo Jo! We just painted earlier this year. When I put the agave there I was so excited how well the colors worked together :) It’s the strangest thing that it’s been an awesome “neutral”?? that seems to make every plant and flower look awesome against it.

Ruchi, your inspiration pics are so pretty! My very next thought though was that those stones will all be mixed up in about 3 days. Maybe not true for you, but my kids can be little jerks sometimes lol. I do have to use a leaf blower once every couple of weeks on mine for all the little stuff that gets in there. So far only had to pick two little weeds. How much time will you be able to spend on upkeep and maintenance?

You pointed out some great concerns about the upkeep. What do you suggest, have some partition in between different colored stones, gravel etc?

What I read was that if you have something like 4-5 inches of stones, then weeds can’t really grow up from the soil below. But they can get in from above and grow in the little bits of soil that settle between the stones. So the leaf blower is supposed to help prevent that. When I use it I have to be careful because it does blow the pebbles too somewhat. So if you have a pattern of stone colors I’d get bigger to minimize their movement.

Thanks for your tip about bigger stones

Some type of partition might be helpful too, yes. And just plan on it being part of the “zen” experience, sort of a meditation ritual, to spend a certain amount of time putting rocks back in their place periodically.

There is no landscape that looks appealing that will be 'maintenance free'. Weeds can grow ANYWHERE given a chance. It is always a battle to keep your beds pristine. That slope will require a ground cover of some sort. Is it shady or sunny. Pac Casandra, all sorts of sedums, it would be initial work but hosta's would hold up, phlox...the thicker it grows the less weeds will get in. BUT it doesn't have to be a weekly chore..a few times a season possibly. The rock gardens look awesome--the first day/week..after that removing what blows in might not be so fun. For sure that pea rock look is A NIGHTMARE for many reasons most being they won't stay put!! Even pavers in that spot, where the stairs come down would make a nice patio but eventually there will be weeks in the cracks, settling etc. Heck even cement slabs crack!! But again as requested pictures from farther back, more angles and light information, zone you are in all required before any real help can be suggested.

IMoO Japanese gardens are awesome viewed from above I put pea gravel down in 60% of my back yard with perennials planted where I want the and so much nicer that weedy perennial beds and a tiny patch of grass that never grew properly. The pea gravel stays in place because we put a nice edging along the walkway before the gravel went in .

I would imagine that a Japanese gravel garden would be difficult on a steep grade with the run off problems and the ammount of maintanance or ammount of chemicals to keep it weed free would also add to the run off problem. I live where torrential rainfalls are coupled with extended droughtsherein Central Texas. Take whatever I say and filtr it through the requirements of your environment. I don't know where this is so I can only talk aboutwhere I am.

I think rocks brouht in to capture run off low down and through your grade would be good combined with grasses and wildflowers and medium to large agaves would tick low maintance and beauty boxes. If low maintenance is a requirement than look for a wild natural look with larger plantsinterspesed with wild flowers and grasses. I absolutely love how a medium agave gets lost in the blossoms of gulf coast muhly. cpmbine that with a larger agave and you are off to the rases. I would go for agave ovatifolia or agaves that do not pup out that much. I like agave striata also because they meristem pup after flowering and the tight "clump" does not "die" after flowering. Every year now I get 4 or more blossoms off my A. striata clump. The clump is now about 5' wide. I am planting a hole bunch that I grew from seed on my sloping cactus where most of the cactus in my cactus garden died after 2 weeks under ice this winter.. If you have shade ; the Agave bracteosa is a very nice touch singly or grown in a bunch.Once a or twice a year I go through and thin out grasses and blue bonnets (after flowering). I get flushes of wild flowers too. I get the bluebonnet flush the the blanket flower/horse mint flush; the standing cypress flush and now the palafoxia flush is getting started. Agave lophantha splendida will form a thick ground covering surface that grass has a hard time getting through. It is good for areas close to paths but one will have to pull stolons out of the path unless you edge it with a barior. The nice thing; Budget wise; about a wild garden is that one can get the basics done and then get the plants in as one goes. I go to plant swaps and keep my eye on my neighbors agave collections that need a weeding out of babies or ar being left to seed. I have acreage so ;low maintance and working with the wild is what it is all about. . Another nice combination is dark green agave like A. salmiana-ferox coupled with artemesia 'valery finis" or the silvery artemesia of your choice. Dalea greggi will do well with agaves and flow down your slope beatifully and spread and thicken up nicely.. Grasses for a flowing down a slope are weeping muhly and mexican feathergrass.Weeping muhly is good for errosion control.

I am a no mow; no water garden. I only water to establish and then it is left up to the garden gods.

I am in California zone 9, my backyard does get late afternoon sun. I love the idea of a zen garden, but this white pea gravel, patterns raked looks lot of hard work to keep neat and leaf free. My yard has redwood trees on one side.

Not very fond of cacti and big agave plants. I like variegated leaf, colorful succulents etc. Ground covers , big rocks, mounds, different colored gravel do look very nice.

Sedum palmeryii is fast growing and tough.There are many contrasting colored sedums. Sedums are not as pretty as echeveria and aioniums but they are cheaper and one might find friends with cuttings to spare. One can pare them with plants like purple heart and daleas gregiii and and artemesia for a colorful bang. Be aware that to do a gravel garden on a slope one needs to be aware of drainage and erosion. The ground prep of the grass below must be rigorous . Seeds love to germinate in in gravel mulch. I have a grassland in my gravel mulch of my cactus garden. I do weed to keep my grasses at bay. I would be fighting the grasses even if I had not planted them since I live out in the country and grassland is all around me and seed is in the wind and dropping out of bird butts freshly fertilized. So that is a reason why I chose to go with something that is more natural to my environment. I am lazy and I have other work to do on my land. Be aware that one does not see the details of small plants from above but the textures and colors of blocks of plants. I see my cactus/agave/grasses from about 11' up, 16' if you add my height in the mix.

Great points here ☝️👍👍

I'm in Sonoma Co., North of SF. We moved from a country property into town where everything is sort of lawn and boxwood.

With the drought I'm slowly switching my yard over to drought tolerant.

I've been collecting succulents from flea markets, freecycle, nextdoor etc for years.

I've planted my helstrips (about 4x4') about 3 years ago and they are pretty well filled in. I did an island in the middle of the lawn a year ago and everything is filling in nicely! (We made the sprinklers go away from the island and I hand water the succulents every 2 weeks or so)

I used larger stones(1-2") because there are tons of trees in this area, and the fall is just a crazy amount of leaves!!

Sorry, I don't have this site on my phone or tablet yet so I don't know how to post pics.

Sedum palmerii and some of the other sedums will take some shade. The palmerii takes brutal Texas sun and a partshade also and hardy to 5º. Some aloes will take part sun. I have had luck with soap aloe and the small one that looks like it who's anme escapes me now. Aloe striat will also do well in Z 9 with an occasional covering when it starts getting close to 20º, I keep mine in pots because we can get below 15º,.... this year we got to 5º annd boy howdy was I yanking up plants and hauling them roots, dirt and all into my work shop.I was digging up agaves that were small enough to dig and move. A frost cloth was not going to do it.

I loved all the answers. Although I didn't pose the question, I enjoyed these suggestions, they're definitely good inspiration. As a simple suggestion from someone who's not an expert on this, if you type in Youtube backyard succulent garden, you will find many videos for inspiration.