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How to makeover sloping side yard?

Hi, I have a side yard beside my house, that is both flat and then sloping. It's been partially paved but there's a Wilder part at the back where it's sloping unevenly. Major issues are the oak tree leaves and acorns dropping. It's previously had pebbles down in some parts but these are impossible to keep when I'm trying to pick up the acorns and sweep up leaves in autumn.

Any ideas from outside experts? How to even up the soil, would fake grass be appropriate, pavers? I've just had a new fence put in so will be painting this black I think.

Thank you!

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Decking and Paving

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Comments

MitchellMc

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @JSJB. It's wonderful to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about planning a garden makeover.

What would you like to achieve in these areas? Are you purely looking to make them easy to maintain, or do you have aspirations of a planted garden one day? Check out How to plan a garden makeover and How to give your garden a makeover by @Adam_W before you start making a plan.

Since the rear section appears relatively inaccessible, I'd suggest planting it out with a hedge to screen the fence. You'll find this guide on How to choose a hedging plant useful. Alternatively, if that retaining wall is around waist height, then you could look at turning the area behind it into a veggie patch. It seems like it receives a reasonable amount of sun on it.

For the side section, you could clean it out and use larger 20mm pebbles. That would allow you to use a leaf blower to remove the leaves easily whilst the weight of the pebbles should keep them in place. You'll want a large enough pebble that it stays in place, but not so large that the leaves get stuck between them.

Our members have contributed several brilliant side yard projects, and I'd encourage you to read through them for inspiration.

Let me mention @tom_builds, @BradN, @LisasGarden and @diy_hausdesigns to see if they have any thoughts.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

tom_builds

Hi @JSJB , welcome to the community!

If that were my side yard and I was concerned about the slope I would look at stepping up the ground level through a series of terraced retaining walls (timber to match the existing retaining walls and the fence), with a set of pedestrian steps up the middle (example photo below). That would make it easier to access, and provide a number of flat surfaces on which you could place garden beds, paving, landscaping stones or even grass. At the top level you might even have space to set up a park bench as an outdoor seating area (perfect for reading a book with a cuppa).

Doing so would involve a fair bit of work, but would let you transform the space from difficult to access and maintain into something that is neat and usable.

I'm excited to see what other ideas you and our other members come up with.

Best of luck,

Tom

images (2).jpeg

While the scale of this is significantly larger than your space this should give an idea of what I would look to do.

JSJB

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/16751#Comment_16751

Thanks Mitchell, this is really helpful 👍

JSJB

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/16784#Comment_16784

Thanks Tom, that idea is amazing. I'm excited to have ideas coming through that I hadn't considered before.

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