Creative Ways To Make A Sloped Backyard More Private

A steep backyard can be highly frustrating. Sloped areas often lack usable space yet require a lot of care. Grassy hills are more treacherous to mow than flat ground, and you may have to take extra precautions to prevent soil erosion and keep water from flooding low-lying areas. What's more, neighbors at the top of a slope may be able to peer into your yard with ease. Even if you adore attention from anyone and everyone, you deserve to enjoy your outdoor spaces without feeling like you're on display. Though these drawbacks can be a pain, they're not a never-ending curse. With some imagination and planning, you can address a sloped yard's biggest annoyances with beautiful features that increase privacy, function, and enjoyment.

Some of the best ways to make a sloped yard more secluded involve fences, hedges, and retaining walls. You don't have to build a fence around your entire backyard to make it more private. Consider flattening a few spots in the yard and surrounding them with privacy screens or dense walls of foliage. For example, you could level an area big enough for a modest patio and then outfit it with a table and chairs or a small container garden, plus a stylish DIY wood privacy screen. Or you could create a few flat and functional areas — perhaps one for grilling, one for gardening, and one for relaxing — and connect them with paths or staircases while making sure no one else can see inside.

Whether you want to hide a hill from view or enclose part of a flattened area, fences, hedges, and other types of privacy screens can help. Racked or tiered privacy fencing is often a good fit for steep sections of yards, and it can be attached to retaining walls that keep soil from sliding down slopes. When comparing the prices of wooden and composite privacy fences, keep in mind that vinyl and other man-made materials tend to last longer and require less maintenance. This can make them the less expensive choice for the long term. Bamboo fencing is another budget-friendly privacy booster you can install in a variety of outdoor spaces, including hilly areas. You may even be able to DIY one of these if you're comfortable using a saw and drill.

Though wood is an eco-friendly, the most sustainable privacy walls are made of plants. Boxwood hedges are as beautiful as they are durable. Plus, you can customize their height. They do take time to grow, though. If you go the boxwood route, choose a variety that's suited to your USDA hardiness zone, resistant to common plant diseases, and easy to maintain. If you don't want to wait for a real boxwood hedge to establish itself, a faux one might be the answer. Or you can see if a trellis or pergola with climbing plants offers the level of privacy you want. Mandevilla and vining jasmine tend to cover trellises pretty thoroughly, making areas beside them feel secluded.

Retaining walls that hold a slope's soil in place can also create visual barriers that increase privacy. They tend to go beside flattened spaces such as patios and playgrounds, but don't overlook the aesthetic possibilities of the walls themselves. Try building in benches or planter boxes to make them more functional and eye-catching. Brick and concrete retaining walls can mimic your home's masonry, while wood and stone ones are an easy way to add more natural materials to your landscaping.

A structure made of gabion baskets can serve as a retaining wall or a privacy-enhancing fence for a sloped backyard. In addition to stabilizing steep slopes and controlling erosion, gabion retaining walls make a nice DIY project. You can customize the baskets by filling them with attractive stones or reclaimed bricks. Some people use these wire-mesh baskets to build furniture or vertical gardens that double as retaining walls.

Consider pairing retaining walls with flat terraces to make sloped areas more usable and private. These landings are ideal spots for fire pits, chairs, and benches. Incorporating planters into the walls can help these spaces come alive and make gardening possible in even the steepest of yards. Work some solar lights into the design to make the terraces safe and easy to navigate at night.