What can I do to beautify this horrible hill in by backyard?
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What about a retaining wall? Flat land up to the wall. That would at least give you some usable backyard.
I had a back like this only a little steeper. I ended up turning it into a low gradient terrace garden with narrow paths covered in crushed rock. Once I'd planted my small shrubs, ground covers, ground covering/carpet roses, as well as miniature roses, and other smallish shrubs, etc. The paths seemed to be meandering in an around the plants. I guess the paths meandered through the garden just as though it was a stream in the country/bush ... I didn't have a set number of levels as such though, as the way to have it appear natural is to have the paths just winding in & around the space, with some coming to an end behind larger shrubs as it gives a lovely feeling of hidden areas. I also included a few arches so that I put climbing roses, mixed with jasmine, honeysuckle, etc. so that the arches always had flowers & perfume. It's easy to achieve this as long as you work out what flowers in what seasons in your part of the country. I also included fairy/bud lighting up towards the back of the garden & planted clumping ginger lilies towards the back at the top. I planted bougainvillea at the back (much to my husbands upset as he hated the thorns!) as well as a couple of other fence climbers & taller shrubs so that there was also plenty of colour towards the back. Adding posts around the paths also helps give the eye something to guide it along the paths.
However if you didn't want to go to that trouble, you could add some posts just into the lawn and put a narrow (about a foot to 18 inches wide at most) winding path between them, and use say, a chain, or drill a hole through the posts & run a piece of wire between them (doesn't need to be thick as it's mainly for show, or just use a thick rope to make it appear like a properly made path. If you gradually removed the grass where the path would be and planted some shrubs in the lawn around the 'path' you would still have the same look. You could also hang some pots on the posts (like plants on a fence - I've seen some pretty ones done with annuals just planted in painted tins and nailed to the fence - you could do this to your posts, even staggered in height going around the posts) if you wanted, just to give speedy height to the flowers in the garden. Adding bid lighting gives such a lovely feel to the garden, especially in summer when you are sitting out in it ... & if you managed to place some pots & bird baths amongst it, I'm sure that you would have a lovely area in no time. These are just suggestions and you can adapt them to suit your pocket & ability. To remove the grass for the paths, you could either use the method of putting down thick layers of newspaper, cardboard, etc. .. or dig by hand little at a time while sitting on the grass .. or by hiring a small grass cutting that would only take a couple of hours to do at most. As long as you decide where you want to put your 'path' before doing anything else, the rest can be done a little at a time. I'd also plant out your shrubs around your paths as soon as you can so that they can be becoming established while you are working on your paths, arches, etc. Even if you wanted to keep most of your lawn, you could still give it more character with a few little paths leading to shrubs, etc. in & around where you retain the lawn. If you decide to dig out a little for your paths, use the soil that you dig up to increase the height of you next higher tiered part ...
Plant some really pretty groundcover plants, like Creeping Phlox, or Georgia Blues Veronica, which is beautiful ,
Thanks
Wendy has the best solution. I was going to suggest terrace gardening. Take your time and take it slow.
I like the terracing idea, but on a limited income that's a lot of hard work to do yourself. I would prepare one bed at a time, up high, and choose a few perennial wildflowers, daylilies, ornamental grasses and groundcovers suited to your hot and humid summers . Leave some room in between so you can fill in between as needed. Then next year do a new bed with a variety of the same. Buy pots and soil at the end of this season when they are closing them out. In just a few seasons you will have a showplace backyard. Best of luck.