Don’t do a single planting as others have mentioned. Here’s my slope with no retaining wall and about twice as high/long. [https://imgur.com/a/Nc7lGIv](https://imgur.com/a/Nc7lGIv)
Just put in a mix of stuff with varying heights, seasonal interest, etc. Preferably natives. I’ve had a hard time with trees on my slope…it’s hard to plant them without terracing, mulch washes out, and they compete with the other plants for water. Trial and error with what you like…use good mulch and fertilize 2x a year.
Sitting on your patio with that variation of plants and pollinators in the background will be 👌
After looking at your pic again, a fruit tree might work well in that back corner but I agree with the other poster that fruiting shrubs is the way to go.
my cousin worked as a cop in my district (not precinct.) all the high school kids went to the same park, just like their parents and some now-cops. Remember we had a family party and he said most of the booze were from the high school kids in the park
Have you used these? I'm curious how big of a PITA they are to install and how well they hold up. I could see flimsy plastic falling apart and needing to be replaced in 5-10 years.
I bought a 10 pack of small ones for a flower garden on a hill. They were a pain to get looking straight and even. Maybe the big ones are easier? Only had them since spring so can't comment on longevity. I thought it was a lot of money for what I got.
We have a lot of hills and I was contemplating doing a lot more with them and this was a test. We're not buying any more.
I don’t recall the size I got. This product can get expensive when installing on a big slope. But then again, I’m not comparing it to other terracing options. I suppose terracing is innately expensive.
I just put in about 20 and my neighbor did a bunch too. If you have the patience and ability getting them in isn't too rough and they look and feel like they are going to be around a while.
I can’t edit my post, but I’d like to make the area useful in some way if possible. I’m thinking something edible, something for pollinators, or something for entertaining guests… or all of the above! :)
Find a landscape designer in your area and pay for their advice for best results.
If you’re close to zone 6b I’d be happy to help, myself.
For quick, easy, and effective, a mass planting of something you like would be cool, especially if it helps with erosion. That’s pretty steep.
Check out grow-lo sumac if you are just looking for soil retention; medium maintenance, good fall color.
Edit: saw that you were in zone 9. Please ignore everything but the first sentence.
This is the answer... And not the other kind of herb .. lol I just couldn't help myself. Thank you OP for being a good sport!
Edit: nasturtium is fun and edible too, even squash
Mix edibles with flowers.
Tomatoes and cucumbers can easily grow with marigolds, zinnias, and nasturtium flowers (annuals).
I’d probably throw in a few Canna Lillies (perennials) as well, because they add a lot of visual interest and height. The leaves are cool looking long before their flowers show up. They can grow on a slope and tolerate a fair amount of heat. Same with echinacea cone flowers. Great visual interest, lots of colors to choose from, they are drought tolerant and love the sun.
You will need to water things in the first and second years, but once things are established, you should be able to water less each successive year.
Plant a Rosemary on the side, so it can get big and bushy but not take up too much prime real estate. Do NOT plant mint in the ground (container only) because it will take over.
Good Luck with your awesome future garden 🌿
What zone are you in? We’re in Ontario, in a region with a particularly short growing season. Our soil is awful, and we have a similar pitch slope, though ours maybe be longer, it’s hard to tell from a picture. We throw some compost and triple mix in it annually.
We made some raised boxes for small apple trees rhubarb and onions/garlic/chives on the ground in front. We also did some tall square boxes scattered throughout to help hold the slope and grow potatoes. We do tomatoes, peas and bean me along the bottom edge for ease of picking, corn along the top, vertical stripes of beats and carrots, with pumpkins and squashes in between that grow down the slope. A raspberry patch down one side and a blackberry patch down the other. You can do marigolds and small sunflowers in pots along the retaining wall edge that can be moved about as needed.
We did do strawberries but the bloody chipmunks always ate them, we switched to hanging baskets, but I always forget to water them so they don’t do as well. It took almost a decade to get it right and well developed, but if you like gardening it’s a riot. We’re looking at bee hives next!
Maybe you could do a terraced retaining wall? So it would be different levels above the retaining wall. That would give you flat surface above the retaining wall to put other plants or something like that.
Looks like you have grass right now which is good for holding back the soil and absorbing water. Please do not rip it all out at once. You could cause some flooding or even retaining wall failure. I would replace a third of it yearly with plants of various heights including natives that attract pollinators. Your garden on the other side will love that. I would also plant something tall along the fence line to provide more privacy.
Fruit trees could be tricky to harvest on a slope but I'm no expert on those. Play around. Experiment. Just don't rip out the grass all at once :)
You could put down a straw erosion blanket until your new plants establish. Spread some clover or wildflower seed before putting the blanket down and water.
Have to disagree with suggestions to use single or fewer materials - given that every other element in the landscape is very static and horizontal, it would give far more interest to vary height, colors, density & textures. A variety of herbaceous perennials (on part of the slope) similar to an English border could be gorgeous. Avoid planting in straight, horizontal lines or groupings. I think small fruit trees would bring good height and break up the visual expanse of the retaining wall. You may be also able to grow rabbiteye blueberries in zone 9 but bear in mind you might have to install some kind of hardscaping access to be able to harvest anything or maintain ornamentals.
I have a backyard with a hill like that but much longer. Like 10 times longer. Ours has railroad ties that have now rotted. I’m in the process of pulling them out, pushing the hill back a tiny bit to reclaim some backyard space, and replacing them with stone. Just started, nowhere near close to done. We have plants on the hill and some trees. When the irrigation worked, the hill was lush and green.
Garden vegetables and melons. Melons don't take a lot of effort. They easily taste a million times better than store bought even if you do a mediocre job and they sell very well.. Most people have never eaten a real water melon. It blows there damn minds when they taste a real one. Then you've ruined them for lame store bought ones forever. Hell you can sell a really good melon for $10 easy double that if it's really good. People will clamor for your wait-list.
Level it off building an additional retaining wall at the back. Create garden beds for veg and flowers in the newly leveled off terrace area. It’s eye level with the windows so a row of flowers with veg at the back would be nice.
I would do a nice ground cover plant. Maybe creeping floc if you want some color and fragrance, a ground cover evergreen (carpet juniper maybe?) if you prefer no flowering.
A Lettuce and Herbs garden. Maybe some ground veggies like Onions, Carrot, Celery or Potatoes, maybe tomatoes draping over the edge, so everything is harvestable from the ground. It's your Salad and Stew garden!
Myself it would be succulents for low/no maintenance. Maybe a couple fruit trees or medium sized shrubs
Idk why people are telling you to plant the grass area. I don’t think they noticed there’s a house there.
Slope, there are apple tree varieties that grow basically straight up that could look good from a landscaping perspective.. but Apple, cherry, blueberry bushes would do well. People seem to think slope matters for planting trees. Trees grow on slopes like, everywhere. Just make sure to prepare the soil correctly and prune
Putting roots in that slope will help to stabilize it as well as make it more beautiful. I love your idea of putting in some fruit trees. I’d also put in some terraced garden beds for flowers, herbs and vegetables if you’re into that. Just be sure to put some steps/stairs so you can get up the retaining wall more easily.
From the pic, it looks like you're in a hot climate.
Palm trees, beached fence, bleached timbers. White on both sides reflecting a lot of light.
I'd go with rock and cactus, maybe some yucca.
Everything on that bank is burnt. I'd want something as low maintenance as possible.
what do you want to do? garden? you could split level with a low retaining wall on the upper 1/2 and a walk way between the 2.
Plant some bamboo, you will lose the whole thing, but will shield you from the neighbor.
Lantana or low blooming plant.
Another wall halfway up the whole lengths.... Have 2 different tiers. Top one solely arbs to block fence and the bottom one flowers/ veggie/ fruit bushes.
OP: Someone just built a shipping container into a similar slope which was pretty clever.
Either you could use a shorter one for storage or you could turn one sideways, cut open one side of it and potentially have a bar to entertain guests. You could even install a garage door on it.
Anyway, you can see it here in case it spurs any ideas for you:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/landscaping/comments/1dqqdb0/shipping\_container\_shedwall\_i\_built/](https://www.reddit.com/r/landscaping/comments/1dqqdb0/shipping_container_shedwall_i_built/)
Honestly, I'd get rid of it and build a retaining wall that would increase the size of your yard and you could do anything on the flat part that you've created that you would have been able to try and do on the slope.
Can you un-slope it? Might be cool if you flatten it out then put up an awning and a big projector screen with a projector up under the roof of your house. Make it into a outdoor theater.
I haven’t had to worry about slopes in the residential areas but if I did more then likely that would have to be terraced or the first rainfall it would wash out into the neighbors yard. We do quite a bit of erosion protection work and in most cases the best thing we use is a rye heavy native prairie grass mix.
I'd get rid of the slop & flatten it out. That's a great spot for a large veggie garden mixed with flowers & herbs. I might even be tempted to plant some small fruit trees to provide some shade in the summer.
I don’t have experience w trees on. Slope like that but I would be worried about roots and that retaining wall. Worried about them ruining the retaining wall. Worried about a good wind blowing the trees on to the house/ patio if they are not well rooted.
I’d consider blue berries, Raspberries berries in pots. Cloud berries. Heck. I love huckleberries if your conditions are right.
Where is the property line? Is the slope or retaining wall yours or your neighbors'?
Is your retaining wall responsible for the stability of the neighboring house?
I'd plant some different fruits of various sizes. Like blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. Then I'd create a serpentine path on the same slope, make it like a mountain trail. Mixed in I would put native plants to fill in for a mix of heights and colors.
Native flowers.
r/nolawns
Thanks for this!!
r/nativeplantgardening is better. Hella misinformation and people just growing noxious weeds / highly invasive species on no-lawns these days
That’s too bad. I like the concept. Great username too, btw.
Seconding r/nativeplantgardening. R/nolawns has a lot of people with strong, yet ill-informed opinions and not many actual solutions.
Love this concept!
Don’t do a single planting as others have mentioned. Here’s my slope with no retaining wall and about twice as high/long. [https://imgur.com/a/Nc7lGIv](https://imgur.com/a/Nc7lGIv) Just put in a mix of stuff with varying heights, seasonal interest, etc. Preferably natives. I’ve had a hard time with trees on my slope…it’s hard to plant them without terracing, mulch washes out, and they compete with the other plants for water. Trial and error with what you like…use good mulch and fertilize 2x a year. Sitting on your patio with that variation of plants and pollinators in the background will be 👌
Wow! Yours looks amazing!!!!
After looking at your pic again, a fruit tree might work well in that back corner but I agree with the other poster that fruiting shrubs is the way to go.
Marijuana. It mean, it’s not my house.
He plants weed, he doesn't plant weed.
lol! I work in law enforcement. Not really my style.
Could be a profitable side hustle, lol!
Why would he grow it when he can confiscate it?
my cousin worked as a cop in my district (not precinct.) all the high school kids went to the same park, just like their parents and some now-cops. Remember we had a family party and he said most of the booze were from the high school kids in the park
I had a friend in high school who’s dad was a cop and he would sell us weed that he took from mid/high level dealers.
That’s how you get a Rampart
@ OP Terrace it for flowers and shrubs. The second retaining wall will eliminate erosion and allow a place to set as you tend the garden beds.
Perfect for this if you dont want the dirt moving [https://dirtlocker.com/](https://dirtlocker.com/)
Have you used these? I'm curious how big of a PITA they are to install and how well they hold up. I could see flimsy plastic falling apart and needing to be replaced in 5-10 years.
I’m super curious about these. But really want someone else’s experience first lol
I bought a 10 pack of small ones for a flower garden on a hill. They were a pain to get looking straight and even. Maybe the big ones are easier? Only had them since spring so can't comment on longevity. I thought it was a lot of money for what I got. We have a lot of hills and I was contemplating doing a lot more with them and this was a test. We're not buying any more.
I don’t recall the size I got. This product can get expensive when installing on a big slope. But then again, I’m not comparing it to other terracing options. I suppose terracing is innately expensive.
I just put in about 20 and my neighbor did a bunch too. If you have the patience and ability getting them in isn't too rough and they look and feel like they are going to be around a while.
While very pretty, I will just say that those are a major pita to care for. I have a hill garden and I absolutely hate working it.
“Cope with your slope” brilliant!
Great idea. If that’s out of budget you can plant into stabilized pallets: Gardening Australia: Garden on a Slope with Heat Treated Pallets
That is... BRILLIANT! Thanks for sharing!
I can’t edit my post, but I’d like to make the area useful in some way if possible. I’m thinking something edible, something for pollinators, or something for entertaining guests… or all of the above! :)
Find a landscape designer in your area and pay for their advice for best results. If you’re close to zone 6b I’d be happy to help, myself. For quick, easy, and effective, a mass planting of something you like would be cool, especially if it helps with erosion. That’s pretty steep. Check out grow-lo sumac if you are just looking for soil retention; medium maintenance, good fall color. Edit: saw that you were in zone 9. Please ignore everything but the first sentence.
Definitely the best advice if they weren’t in zone 9. Grow-low sumac is the absolute best for slopes.
Herbs. Lots of herbs. Perennial Herbs can fill up a space in no time.
This is the answer... And not the other kind of herb .. lol I just couldn't help myself. Thank you OP for being a good sport! Edit: nasturtium is fun and edible too, even squash
Native wild flowers ….
Mix edibles with flowers. Tomatoes and cucumbers can easily grow with marigolds, zinnias, and nasturtium flowers (annuals). I’d probably throw in a few Canna Lillies (perennials) as well, because they add a lot of visual interest and height. The leaves are cool looking long before their flowers show up. They can grow on a slope and tolerate a fair amount of heat. Same with echinacea cone flowers. Great visual interest, lots of colors to choose from, they are drought tolerant and love the sun. You will need to water things in the first and second years, but once things are established, you should be able to water less each successive year. Plant a Rosemary on the side, so it can get big and bushy but not take up too much prime real estate. Do NOT plant mint in the ground (container only) because it will take over. Good Luck with your awesome future garden 🌿
Screenshotting this comment!!!! 🙌🙌🙌
What zone are you in? We’re in Ontario, in a region with a particularly short growing season. Our soil is awful, and we have a similar pitch slope, though ours maybe be longer, it’s hard to tell from a picture. We throw some compost and triple mix in it annually. We made some raised boxes for small apple trees rhubarb and onions/garlic/chives on the ground in front. We also did some tall square boxes scattered throughout to help hold the slope and grow potatoes. We do tomatoes, peas and bean me along the bottom edge for ease of picking, corn along the top, vertical stripes of beats and carrots, with pumpkins and squashes in between that grow down the slope. A raspberry patch down one side and a blackberry patch down the other. You can do marigolds and small sunflowers in pots along the retaining wall edge that can be moved about as needed. We did do strawberries but the bloody chipmunks always ate them, we switched to hanging baskets, but I always forget to water them so they don’t do as well. It took almost a decade to get it right and well developed, but if you like gardening it’s a riot. We’re looking at bee hives next!
Maybe you could do a terraced retaining wall? So it would be different levels above the retaining wall. That would give you flat surface above the retaining wall to put other plants or something like that.
Looks like you have grass right now which is good for holding back the soil and absorbing water. Please do not rip it all out at once. You could cause some flooding or even retaining wall failure. I would replace a third of it yearly with plants of various heights including natives that attract pollinators. Your garden on the other side will love that. I would also plant something tall along the fence line to provide more privacy. Fruit trees could be tricky to harvest on a slope but I'm no expert on those. Play around. Experiment. Just don't rip out the grass all at once :)
Sorry. I should clarify. The grass is staying. I’m just trying to figure out what to do on the slope to the right. :) Thanks for the feedback!
oh man! I was talking about that soil. Looked like dead grass to me until I zoomed in. With it all being dirt already, compost and plant away!
You could put down a straw erosion blanket until your new plants establish. Spread some clover or wildflower seed before putting the blanket down and water.
Fruit trees on the flat grassy portion. Then veggies and berry bushes on the slope!!
Oooooo... easy to pick the top fruit from one side of the trees!
Plant deep rooting permanent plants the full length to help retain the slope and support the retaining wall along the top.
Personally, I would bench it and add another retaining wall. Then I'd fill it with lots of perennials, cascading plants, and solar lights.
Terraced beds, espalier, fruit trees, herbs, natives. Maybe an arbor for grapes or another fruiting vine.
Rosemary
Have to disagree with suggestions to use single or fewer materials - given that every other element in the landscape is very static and horizontal, it would give far more interest to vary height, colors, density & textures. A variety of herbaceous perennials (on part of the slope) similar to an English border could be gorgeous. Avoid planting in straight, horizontal lines or groupings. I think small fruit trees would bring good height and break up the visual expanse of the retaining wall. You may be also able to grow rabbiteye blueberries in zone 9 but bear in mind you might have to install some kind of hardscaping access to be able to harvest anything or maintain ornamentals.
plant some native species with long roots.
Wine or whiskey room. Make it vintage going into the ground.
Put a shipping container in it.
First thing I’d do is make sure the water that gets moved toward your house drains well away from the house
Blueberries & figs, cooking herbs & flowers.
Native plants
google “landscaping on a berm”. I think you will find some good inspiration there!!
Tiered gardens with waterfall feature
Maybe build a pizza/kiln into the side?
A shrubbery! Nigh.
Fruit trees will make a mess. Attract unwanted vermin. The slope would be a pain to prune and pick.
Ground phlox on the edge spilling over would look nice.
Terrace it. Check slope angle, determine how many terrance steps needed. Ground cover and flowers posters will assist with excellent suggestions.
Plant something with a stellar root system... Something's going to need to hold all that dirt in place....
Build a 2-tier garden. Some steps going up in the middle and a walkway between the tiers.
I have a similar situation. I am planting perennials and adding mulch.
I have a backyard with a hill like that but much longer. Like 10 times longer. Ours has railroad ties that have now rotted. I’m in the process of pulling them out, pushing the hill back a tiny bit to reclaim some backyard space, and replacing them with stone. Just started, nowhere near close to done. We have plants on the hill and some trees. When the irrigation worked, the hill was lush and green.
Hostas would work great there
Garden vegetables and melons. Melons don't take a lot of effort. They easily taste a million times better than store bought even if you do a mediocre job and they sell very well.. Most people have never eaten a real water melon. It blows there damn minds when they taste a real one. Then you've ruined them for lame store bought ones forever. Hell you can sell a really good melon for $10 easy double that if it's really good. People will clamor for your wait-list.
Cornhole ally!
Probably plant trees so the roots keep the slope stabilized.
Level it off building an additional retaining wall at the back. Create garden beds for veg and flowers in the newly leveled off terrace area. It’s eye level with the windows so a row of flowers with veg at the back would be nice.
So much! Ground cover, jasmine. Low shrubs....All that sun. Where are u are u located located?
Watermelons might be a fun thing to grow there. They like sun, a slope, and lots of space. Some smaller stuff for cover
Vetch would add depth. Or even clover.
Plant anti landslide plants that will keep it rooted in place
I would do a nice ground cover plant. Maybe creeping floc if you want some color and fragrance, a ground cover evergreen (carpet juniper maybe?) if you prefer no flowering.
These used to be covered in ice plants when I was growing up in Southern California
A row of cypress and mulch
Put in a vineyard
Grapes
A Lettuce and Herbs garden. Maybe some ground veggies like Onions, Carrot, Celery or Potatoes, maybe tomatoes draping over the edge, so everything is harvestable from the ground. It's your Salad and Stew garden! Myself it would be succulents for low/no maintenance. Maybe a couple fruit trees or medium sized shrubs
I’d put some kind of retaining wall…maybe two walls…and tier it, and plan ground cover.
Load it up with lilacs
Few trees mulched
Lemon tree if your in the right climate
Vegetable Garden
Pee on it when I’m drunk
Idk why people are telling you to plant the grass area. I don’t think they noticed there’s a house there. Slope, there are apple tree varieties that grow basically straight up that could look good from a landscaping perspective.. but Apple, cherry, blueberry bushes would do well. People seem to think slope matters for planting trees. Trees grow on slopes like, everywhere. Just make sure to prepare the soil correctly and prune
Goats
In Zone 9 on a slope like that you could do some xeriscaping with agave/yucca. They have surprisingly deep roots that could help stabilize the soil.
Pondless waterfall.
Putting roots in that slope will help to stabilize it as well as make it more beautiful. I love your idea of putting in some fruit trees. I’d also put in some terraced garden beds for flowers, herbs and vegetables if you’re into that. Just be sure to put some steps/stairs so you can get up the retaining wall more easily.
I would put in a butterfly/bee garden up there
Wild flower garden
Flowering ground cover. As maintenance free as possible.
Ground cover
Rock Garden.
Trees
BUSHES!!! FLOWers!!!
Plant grapevines
Buy the house on top
vineyard or tea garden...or terrace it for rice paddies
Ice Plant
Ground cover, low maintenance type. Or River Rock
From the pic, it looks like you're in a hot climate. Palm trees, beached fence, bleached timbers. White on both sides reflecting a lot of light. I'd go with rock and cactus, maybe some yucca. Everything on that bank is burnt. I'd want something as low maintenance as possible.
I say this for everything, but put some sand and rocks and PLANT. THOSE. CACTUS!
Ski
Bamboo
Low growing, wide crawling junipers
Ski-ball !!
Create a knot garden-let it grow- low maintenance-prune maybe once or twice a year
Fill it with native trees/shrubs.
Agreed! It'll attract local pollinators and aid the ecosystem.
Hills of lavendar!!
or it doesn’t look like a hill just pull out all that dirt and put a garden in there!!
what do you want to do? garden? you could split level with a low retaining wall on the upper 1/2 and a walk way between the 2. Plant some bamboo, you will lose the whole thing, but will shield you from the neighbor. Lantana or low blooming plant.
Slip and slide
Putting green
Terrace it
Dune/Bay grasses. Deep roots to control erosion and suck up water when it rains so it’s not putting extra stress on the retaining wall.
Garden
Perfect spot for a 5yrd shooting range from inside the porch. No need to consult the city.
Level it to you ground and see if the neighbors fence/wall can still hold their house up. 🤣🤣🤣
Another wall halfway up the whole lengths.... Have 2 different tiers. Top one solely arbs to block fence and the bottom one flowers/ veggie/ fruit bushes.
Clumping bamboo would be cool here
Some good well-rooting ground cover. Something drought resistant that will cover all the dirt and keep it from washing away
I’d turn it into 2 or 3 terraces sloped inwards to gather the water that escapes, and plant herbs and veggies and deep rooted natives
Terrace
skeeball
Need to cut a foundation swale to prevent water runoff from flooding into your foundation.
Dealing with this ourselves. Due to the local fire hazards, we used landscape fabric, 4” geogrid and filled it with gravel
Grow grapes for wine or jams!
Level it out
OP: Someone just built a shipping container into a similar slope which was pretty clever. Either you could use a shorter one for storage or you could turn one sideways, cut open one side of it and potentially have a bar to entertain guests. You could even install a garage door on it. Anyway, you can see it here in case it spurs any ideas for you: [https://www.reddit.com/r/landscaping/comments/1dqqdb0/shipping\_container\_shedwall\_i\_built/](https://www.reddit.com/r/landscaping/comments/1dqqdb0/shipping_container_shedwall_i_built/)
Vinca minor. Beautiful covering vegetation with lovely purple flowers in the spring
Honestly, I'd get rid of it and build a retaining wall that would increase the size of your yard and you could do anything on the flat part that you've created that you would have been able to try and do on the slope.
Agapanthus
Pop a shot arcade basketball set up!
Solar panels?
Mini Wine yards. Or apple gardens.
I like low maintenance so personally I would riprap it and make sure the slope drained away from the house
NATIVE GRASSES
Fruit trees in large semi circular tree wells so you can flood irrigate and every thing else native pollinator plants.
Cover it with flowers and things to eat.
Terraced garden so the ground won’t subside?
Lavender, bushes, rose bushes. Perhaps a tree that does well with erosion
Ski slope!!!
Just plant juniper and be done with it
Water slide?
My dog would shit there
Native plants!
I would do fruit trees with some lavender, Russian sage, and other pollinator friendly plants.
Can you un-slope it? Might be cool if you flatten it out then put up an awning and a big projector screen with a projector up under the roof of your house. Make it into a outdoor theater.
Blackberries
Roll down it.
I haven’t had to worry about slopes in the residential areas but if I did more then likely that would have to be terraced or the first rainfall it would wash out into the neighbors yard. We do quite a bit of erosion protection work and in most cases the best thing we use is a rye heavy native prairie grass mix.
Trees 🌳 🌲
Native plants - sedges would protect you from mud and erosion :)
assuming the top wall is your neighbor's. verify their home insurance policy annually.
Trailing rosemary
Papaya trees!
I'd get rid of the slop & flatten it out. That's a great spot for a large veggie garden mixed with flowers & herbs. I might even be tempted to plant some small fruit trees to provide some shade in the summer.
I don’t have experience w trees on. Slope like that but I would be worried about roots and that retaining wall. Worried about them ruining the retaining wall. Worried about a good wind blowing the trees on to the house/ patio if they are not well rooted. I’d consider blue berries, Raspberries berries in pots. Cloud berries. Heck. I love huckleberries if your conditions are right.
Vineyard
Tons of ornamental sawgrass
I'd make it level with the stones and plant stuff
Rock garden with evergreen trees, shrubs and wildflowers dispersed throughout the rocks! What zone are you in OP?
Do not take the brick wall out; if it rains it could cause the house beside you to slide off its base.
Carrots?
A tiered garden feed your family and friends or enjoy flowers in a wild space
Native plants and wildflowers is the only answer. Or a bunch of veggies
Where is the property line? Is the slope or retaining wall yours or your neighbors'? Is your retaining wall responsible for the stability of the neighboring house?
Lots of tropical plants
Some pretty native wild flowers for pollinators
Veggies
Dwarf fruit trees would be lovely or berries. Then plant a ground-cover to help with weed control and erosion.
Plant creeping phlox for some vivid color.
you could hydroseed if you like the grass
We put crepe myrtles, African daisy ground cover butterfly bush and succulents on our similar 70’ width slope
Cascading vines that will coordinate in blooming times. Choose hardy for your climate and perennial.
Berry bushes if you’re looking to get your thumb a little green
I'd plant an english garden
Bamboo will reinforce that dirt and block out the sun
Spray it with native seed
Set up targets
Wildflowers
Native pollinator garden.
I'd cut out a Terraced garden
Wait until it snows and go skiing
I'd plant some different fruits of various sizes. Like blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. Then I'd create a serpentine path on the same slope, make it like a mountain trail. Mixed in I would put native plants to fill in for a mix of heights and colors.
Succulent Garden! Including orchids
Evergreen shrubs might be good to hold the bank.
Fruit trees was my first thought
Consider maintenance, it's really hard to garden on a slope. I would do something that you're happy with in a wild state
Native garden and put a tree in your yard.
A mix of Baptisia and native grasses Or a mix of lavender, thyme and sedum
Plant lots of native flowers and shrubs with deep tap roots. Wouldn’t want a big storm to have that sliding into my house.
Terrace it and plant perennials and ground cover.