Yes I see your point. It is steep and is not the best looking wall. What about the idea of hiding the whole wall by planting a screening plant, dense to the ground and tall enough to hide some if not all of the wall and fence behind. The site looks as though it is coastal and is the soil deep sand? If so these soils are considerably malnourished - they need a lot of vegetative matter added and you will need to keep up a fertiliser regime [organic] to all of the plants that you use. You also need to bear in mind that all of these soils, if it is deep sand or with a limestone base are porous and drain very sharply. So choosing plants that aren't going to need a lot of water once established is a good idea. There a a lot of Lily Pillies on the market that grow quite tall that could fit the bill for the screen planting. Even if you put the LP at the top and then had Senecio serpens 'The Chalk Stick Plant' cascading down the walls would give a grey tone to the whole wall. Could look good and be really tough! Alison

Clean the wall, paint the fence, plant some plants. You can plant plants that will tolerate the soil you've got but if you improve the soil you will widen your choices and give your plants a better start. Forget fashionable vertical gardens, lovely though they look, unless you do not have space for horizontal gardens and you know what you are doing or are prepared for a steep learning curve. If you are an inexperienced gardener there are easier ways to get started and achieve a very nice result. You appear to have the space for it. Do you want to keep a lot of lawn, or will there be a sitting area or anything else?

The leveled area that you propose has not considered drainage. Looking at the photos, there is an existing swale that is catching excess moisture and then enabling a percolation effect. If this was my site, I would leave as it presents - this is the sustainable way. You can plant into the slope down to the swale. But use plants here that will tolerate wet and dry. And do not bring in extra soil - use what is on site. This is the sustainable way, and your garden will last. The area adjacent to the house (1.2 meters wide min) I would put down a base with fine aggregate over the top. You may not even need garden edging if managed right. The slope can have plants with a mixture of heights - avoid the Acacia recommended; the A implexa suckers and the Hakea salicifolia will get far too big for the space. Better choices are some of the smaller shrubby bottlebrush and maybe grevilleas. A couple of smaller trees could be considered but not lumped at the top. Finish with a few native lomandras all the same variety to add a textural contrast. Clean up the concrete mess left by the builders - this is extremely alkaline. The aim of the planting should be to hide the fences - and the roofline over the back fence and provide diversity of plants for birds. Remember the obligatory bird bath.

We are building a house and trying to decide on the best retaining ideas. We will need 50mm so considering sandstone blocks but want to have steps in the middle and side access to the back yard still. any ideas/drawings/photos would be appreciated. Thank you