The retaining walls are what I like the most. IMO you need to identify what it is you don't like. Is it the style and/or colour of the retaining walls? Is it that they are just too overwhelming for the space? Is it the proportion of hardscaping to greenery? Is it that you don't like the space but are not sure why and thought that because the retaining walls seem most conspicuous they must be the cause? I am not saying that because some of us like them you should also like them. Each to their own. I agree with the concerns that the retaining wall would have too much movement for rendering to work. You would need to remove the wall and replace it with something you like, as suggested above. But it's a big job so I think it's worth having a good think about what exactly you don't like about the space. I don't think the pavers go well with the walls. Perhaps replacing the pavers would work? (What colour is the house? I assume it is to the right of the picture?) Perhaps growing more cascading plants would soften the appearance of the walls? Perhaps growing something taller to hide the fence would make the space more pleasant? Give it some thought. If you decide it IS the walls you dislike you'll probably have to replace them.

Depending on how much sun you get wisteria, hellebores, potato creeper, star jasmine, ornamental grapes, bougainvillia, clematis - there's an endless list. Figure out how much sun you get and head down to your local nursery, the horticulturalist there and they'll give you good advice on what your options are and how best to keep them happy.

It is hard to see from your pic wether your wall out front is actually holding up any soil. This is how we rectified our retaining wall.it was showing cracking to the right hand end/side of pic and we questioned how much support work the previous owners had put into the soil. You can see in bottom left corner the painted concrete wall. We built a treated timber wall in front which rises more than half the way up the concrete one and supports it. Problem solved. With the added row of Lilly Pillies we now have a dust barrier from our dirt street.

Hi there I need som help with recommendations on my back yard in my new build as the house next door to us has not been built yet I have easy access to the back yard from their lot I don’t know wether I should build a concrete sleeper wall across and have stairs going up like pic below and there will be two levels of the back yard. Or if I should dig out all the soil and dispose of it and have one level back yard with the retaining wall going along the sides and back but this would need council DA. Please let me know your thoughts