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

Hiya, for a no fuss cover my suggestions are: Ivy - would cover the wall completely and also climb the fence. It's super easy to keep neat by using an electric hedge trimmer. Bamboo - get a species that is clumping - not spreading. Species that have black stems against the green leaves would look very striking. Most grow quite tall though and require full sun so you'd need to take this into account. Lilly Pilly's, Murraya's, Photinia's are hardy and great for tall hedges. Certain species grow quite quickly. Want to get some use out of your plants? Consider passionfruit vine. Great fruit, but the wine will lose its leaves in winter. Same with wisteria, ornamental grape, etc. Enjoy, and hope this helps. Cheers, Debs

Hi all, Sorry for the slow replies and thanks for the input so far. From what I've read online a re-inforced besser block wall should be about $600 p/sqm including footings in Sydney (Hornsby shire council area). Given the wall is 1m x 10m it should be let's say $7k including design and DA or am I way off? I'd also need to dispose of the current wall + footings but I could probably give the blocks away. The paved area is about 40sqm. Would it be safe to assume $200 p/sqm for concrete base, paver supply (travertine) and install (coping and surrounds)? So the wall and and paving would cost let's say $16k + fencing + cladding. This isn't too bad considering how much better it would look and the value it would add to the house. I like the flexibility the besser would give - render, cladding etc are all options. I'm not sure how bad it is structurally it just has a couple of spots where I can see the blocks have pulled apart over time. Below are some pictures of the bad spots. Also looking at the Amber website it says the maximum courses is maximum non reinforced wall height of 972mm (6 courses). It looks like my wall is actually 7 courses un-reinforced. The wall and pool was built back in 2003. I definitely think planting in front of the wall would help, as would removing the lights but I'm in two minds about whether to bite the bullet and do it properly or just hide it.

i wonder if there's something buried under all that soil that made it easier to build up the soil level than install the old fence at ground level (check with council and "dial before you dig" about any water pipes, underground cables, septic tanks etc but if the raised soil is only about 60cm above the general ground area it shouldn't cause any problems to remove except lots of hard work and then you have to find somewhere to take the leftover soil and rubbish...a backhoe with driver and skip would be well worth the expense to clear the whole area neatly and quickly but first discuss a new fence with the neighbours as you may need to have a survey done to ensure you know exactly where the boundaries are and the survey should be part of the shared costs of the new fences on their sides...also check the insides of the garage to see if there appear to be any difference between the internal walls on the high soil side and the low soil side...if the soil has just been piled up against the outside of the garage it shouldn't cause any problems to take it away...if in doubt call a structural engineer for advice about the garage