Our Back Yard Design – Easy Designs? Right!

Designing something takes some time and effort to think things through but often the effort it takes to bring the design to reality requires a lot of work. This is one of those times. As we have been looking at this back yard one of the problems at present is the slope of the yard. There is a 24 inch drop in the ground level from the back of the deck to the back of the lot. This really creates some problems, with that much slope in that short a distance. Have you ever tried to sit in a chair on a slope? If you set it sideways you feel like your going to topple over. If you sit facing down slope you feel like your going to fall out of the chair. The only possible way is to sit facing up slope and then you feel like your sitting in an easy chair. Not all bad but getting out of the chair, now that’s a different story.
To solve this problem we are going to level the back yard. How are we going to do that? This is certainly not going to be easy. There is no access to the yard for equipment so this is going to have to be all done manually.

If you look at the diagram you will see we are going the make a terrace garden just behind the walk way to the side gate with steps down to the leveled court yard across from the deck steps. This will give easy access to the court yard and make it a very attractive yard with the garden surrounding it.
After consulting with the owner we will make the retaining walls out of pressure treated timbers. This will give it a natural look and make it a little less formal with all the formal straight lines that reflect the angles of the deck and steps that are already present.
Now we have a level place to sit and entertain and a great space for some Cedar outdoor and Patio furniture from “Outdoor Cedars” for folks to sit on.