How to landscape a sloping yard?

[Leighton17]

Hey everyone, 

Just seeking some advice on the 'easiest' way to landscape my backyard. It slopes downwards towards my house. As you can see in one of the photos, my shed/garage is at the bottom of the slope and that is where my laundry is and where my dogs sleep. During rainy season (I live in tropical North Queensland) we can get a lot of rain and it can start to enter the garage. 

I also have a newborn son who I would like to create some flat space for him to play on when he gets older. 

My initial thoughts are to divide it into 2-3 areas and put retaining walls up in each area to help with the drainage and have it going off to one side and then each area I will level out. I feel this will give me a lot more usable space to then plant trees/gardens/etc. 

I am completely useless when it comes to anything DIY so the easier the better. 

Thanks for your help.

[JacobZ]

Hi @Leighton17,

A warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community, it is fantastic to have you with us.

The great thing about landscaping as someone who isn't particularly confident with D.I.Y., is that the majority of it is digging holes and moving dirt, which can be a lot of work, but most people can manage. 

In terms of the project starting point, priority 1 should be addressing drainage. This can be done in a number of ways, with channel drains, french drains, soak wells and swales being options that you could consider. Adding drainage along the back wall of your house and having a plumber connect it to a stormwater pipe seems like a good place to start, considering you are already experiencing water entry into your garage. You might like to check out How to install garden drainage for an example of this in practice. If you have some photos of the specific location of water entry, this will certainly help our members understand and offer their best advice for a fix.

Considering you have such a blank space, after addressing the main drainage issue, I think the best thing we can do is organise our priorities, come up with a basic design and look for a place to start.

You might like to check out How To Design A Landscaping Plan and How To Plan & Landscape a Garden Makeover for some guidance on the planning process.

You could start by putting a basic top-down plan on paper. Draw it with a pencil so you can erase and move things around. Keep it fairly simple to start with, with a focus on getting the main ideas and shapes on paper. Once this plan is better thought out, you can start adding measurements and evaluating the space more closely.

Considering your desire to have flattened out areas for your son to play in, I think some sections with retaining walls would be a great option that doesn't require too much knowledge or skill and only a few basic tools. Check out How to build a retaining wall for an example.

Once the drainage and the main structures have been added, you can then add things like garden beds or playground structures that don't require major changes to the space.

Allow me to tag @Noyade, @mich1972 and @JoeAzza to see what ideas they might have.

Let me know what you think and if you have questions or specific things you'd like advice on, please don't hesitate to ask.

Jacob