Who doesn’t want to have a large, open space to call their own? When you have lived most of your young adult life within the four corners of a small, cramped apartment, having your own house and a backyard all to yourself is something akin to heaven.
Not all backyards are a simple, wide, and flat gardens, though.
Sadly, a lot of great homes come with spacious yet sloped backyard gardens. For many homeowners, this translates to either wasted yard space or a financial black hole. It hardly matters whether the slope is sharp and steep or a soft, gradual one. After all, landscape design on such terrain is not easy nor is it cheap.
Even if you’re on a tight budget, there are easy ways to transform your sloped garden into one that’s just as beautiful as any flat yard — all without calling a landscaping company!
With careful planning, a little bit of elbow grease, a few trips to Home Depot, and maybe some help from your friends, it’s possible to transform your sloped backyard on your own. Check out our favorite sloped backyard ideas on a budget below.
Table of Contents
1. Flagstone Stairs
If you’ve got a sloping garden, the one of the first things you need to ensure is that you have a safe and secure way to go up and down the area. A great way to do this is to carve out some steps and secure it with thick flagstone.
You can easily DIY this project, though you may need some help carrying and placing the heavy flat stones in place. Still, this is one of the best budget backyard ideas you can do yourself.
For your tools, all you’ll need are a shovel, and perhaps a trowel. It takes some work to dig through the soil and flatten it a bit. Place the flagstone on top of the flattened area and press it down firmly to make sure it’s secure and doesn’t wobble.
After that, it’s just a matter of doing it all over again until your stone steps reach the bottom of your garden. Leaving around three inches of a step down before placing the next flagstone gives you a comfortable downwards stride.
2. Rock Garden
Once you’ve figured out how you’ll be making your way down, it’s time to tackle the surrounding area. If you’re not much of a green thumb, you can try creating a natural rock garden. This is also a great idea if you’ve got a sloping front yard.
You can basically use any rocks you want. Big, small, rough, smooth, white, dark — the choice is yours!
We recommend using a mix of large rocks and small ones to create contrast and focal points in the garden. Pea gravel and smaller rocks not only provide good ground coverage but can also help keep weeds away from your garden.
For even more contrast, choose a few full sun, perennial plants to place in your garden. Bromeliads, succulents, Persian shields, and rock-loving plants are great for this. Not only are they hard to kill, they can thrive with little attention and add a pop of color to your rock garden.
3. Waterfall
A sloped property is a perfect opportunity to add an artificial waterfall in your own backyard. While this is definitely not a weekend DIY project, much less one you can do all by yourself, you can be sure this would raise your property’s value.
Here are some of our best ideas for backyard waterfalls:
● Make a waterfall stairway beside your actual garden stairs.
● Repurpose several watering cans to make a trickling water feature.
● Use large natural stones, wood, and plants to mimic the appearance of a waterfall stream.
● For a gentle sloping garden, you can make a low stone wall with a waterfall.
If your home is on top of a fairly steep hill, you can make a series of low retaining walls to create several small waterfalls going down your gorgeous garden.
4. Small Pond
If you want a stunning and cohesive design for your waterfalls, we highly suggest adding a small pond at the bottom of it. Together with the soothing sound of trickling water, your falls can give your sloped garden a much more peaceful, zen, and modern look.
Your small pond can look amazing on a budget with the help of some plants, rocks, and a few creative ideas. If you want your pond to look as wildly beautiful as possible, use natural materials to line its edges, like large rocks and wood. You can also add water lilies and many different plants for a full, natural effect.
Adding a hillside pond is still beautiful even without a waterfall to accompany it. Make full use of the sloping hillside space by placing the pond halfway up and surrounding it with retaining walls to prevent the soil from getting into it.
For a more contemporary look, use black or white quartz for your hillside pond’s retaining walls and add LED lights. You can also add a glass front panel to showcase underwater plants or fish for dramatic impact.
5. Raised Planter Boxes
Using planter boxes might be the easiest way to make full use of your sloped terrain without leveling it fully. Growing plants in planter boxes is not only an efficient use of your garden space but also helps prevent soil erosion — one of the major problems in sloped backyards.
You can choose from biodegradable and plant-safe plastic planter boxes, wooden boxes, or even terracotta and ceramic boxes. It all depends on your budget and the aesthetic you’re going for.
As for your choice of plants, it’s all up to you! Planter boxes are great for growing root vegetables and herbs. You can assign one type or kind of herb or veggie per planter box for a beautifully organized vegetable garden.
6. Terraced Garden Beds
Similar to raised planter boxes, terraced garden beds are another perfect solution for soil erosion while ensuring a pleasing garden design. The only difference of garden beds from planter boxes is the bottoms — planter boxes have them but raised garden beds do not.
This means your garden beds use the actual soil of your backyard. All you need to do is make some tiered retaining walls to section off parts of your sloped backyard using rocks, stones, or wood. Plant water-loving greens and trees like red maple, blue iris, and winterberry to prevent water runoff.
You can make terraced herb or vegetable beds, just like with your planter boxes, too. However, we think turning them into a flower garden makes for a more breathtaking sight. Just imagine it — a hillside garden filled with terraces of colorful flower beds.
7. Low Maintenance Plants
If your focus is the easiest and cheapest option, you can just fill your whole sloped backyard with nice-looking, low-maintenance plants and ornamental grasses.
One of our best cheap garden ideas is to simply create an outdoor space at the bottom or top where there is level ground and add a winding path in between. Aside from your pathway, fill the area with hardy, native plants. All you need to do is make sure the plants you pick match your garden’s soil conditions.
Small trees or even tall trees are a good thing to have in a sloping garden as well. If you don’t want to fill the area with big bushes, look for ground covers to help ensure water and soil retention. Clover is a great one but if you want more color, then go for peanut plant, Lamium, or creeping phlox.
8. Sheltered Reading Nook
Making a sheltered reading nook is one of the best hillside landscaping ideas to try — especially for book and nature lovers. This works amazingly well for both gentle and steep-sloping gardens.
For a low-effort reading nook, you can simply dig a circular space along the base of your slope. Make a retaining wall along one side then place a seating area along it. Add gravel to keep your shoes from getting too muddy while reading outdoors. You can also use concrete pavers or stone pavers to complete your reading nook.
With some extra little effort, you can make your reading nook more comfy. Having an umbrella, trellis, or arbor will give you some shade for easier reading when the sun is shining brightly. You can also add a fire pit in the middle of your carved-out flat area for warmth during the colder months.
9. Sloped Playground
Not a lot of people think of making a playground when thinking of beautiful landscaping ideas — and that’s such a huge wasted opportunity. Any large outdoor space is already a play area for imaginative kids. So why not take your sloped garden to the next level and build a dedicated play area?
The natural slope of your backyard would work well with slides, climbing ropes, and even forts. A steep hillside will be a perfect place to install a rock climbing wall or a skateboard ramp, too. Even if you don’t have kids, you can still build a playground for your pets or even for yourself!
Not only is this idea a good use of your space — it also offers so much fun for your children, pets, and your inner kid.
10. Multi-Level Hillside Decks
One of the best ideas to maximize your available space when dealing with ultra-steep hillside gardens is to build multi-level hillside decks. This way, you won’t have to spend a lot of money leveling your garden on top of building the flat spaces.
Having decks on different levels gives you a lot of flat surfaces to work with and a lot more outdoor square footage right away. It also gives you a lot of unique spaces perfect for hosting BBQ parties and gatherings.
With several levels of decking covering much of your sloping backyard, you won’t need to worry much about your plants. Your main concern will be ensuring your deck has a stable base. Adding some rocks, selecting good ground covers, and prepping the soil for your chosen grass seeds will help with this.
11. Deck and Infinity Pool
We know this isn’t exactly as DIY-friendly as our other sloped yard ideas. But if you’ve got the space and the budget for it, then this is one of the most beautiful things you can do to really maximize the use of your sloping backyard.
Installing a deck and infinity pool works especially well if you’ve got a steep slope. You won’t have to do any major landscaping or leveling to make sure your infinity pool edge blends into the horizon.
For the rest of your backyard slope, you can simply fill it with low growing, colorful plants and rock arrangements. These will ensure the soil stays even in the rainy season in place without obstructing your view from the pool and deck.
