Hillside Landscaping Design Tips: What to Do With a Sloped Yard in Upstate NY

New York’s Capital Region is home to breathtaking homes and stunning properties. If you are a homeowner in the Upstate NY area, you undoubtedly have big dreams for your own property, including beautiful landscaping.

Unfortunately, achieving your vision for your home is not always easy. Factors outside of your control, such as the challenging terrain of your backyard, can pose legitimate challenges. That’s where professional steep slope landscaping comes in.

The natural obstacles that are present on your property do not have to limit its curb appeal, functionality, and overall potential. With the right sloped backyard ideas and proper installation, your greatest challenge can become the highlight of your home.

Jump to:

How to Landscape a Sloped Backyard
Steep Slope Landscaping Ideas
Drainage and Erosion Control
FAQs About Sloped Backyard Landscaping
Working with Gallivan for Your Hillside Landscape Project

How to Landscape a Sloped Backyard

Sloped backyard landscaping can come with a unique set of challenges.

When talking with my fellow landscape designer, Richard Disharoon, he reminded us that a lot of the challenge depends on the severity of the slope and the available budget – those two elements also determine the strategy. 

"Sometimes you can get away with just playing with landforms,” he said. "Creating flat areas for living and harder sloped areas to manage grade. You can also manage a slope by creating a wall or series of walls and steps/pathways, creating a space or series of spaces down the grade."  

Alternatively, it also creates unique opportunities to create something functional and visually stunning. 

For homeowners in the Capital Region, focusing on the untapped potential of your sloped property can help you envision a positive outcome rather than fixate on the difficulties.

Embracing sloped backyard ideas and opportunities such as terracing, hardscaping, and strategic plant selection can take a challenge and transform it into an advantage. With a professional touch and thoughtful landscape design in the Capital Region and cities such as Saratoga Springs, Albany, and Clifton Park, your dream landscape could become a reality.

Steep Slope Landscaping Ideas

Every property is unique, and with over 30 years of experience in the Capital Region, Gallivan can help identify your home’s challenges and potential. Equipped with this knowledge, our in-house design team and landscaping experts can create a plan to set your property up for success.

It's important to remember, as Richard said, that anything is possible. What we accomplish is totally determined by "our clients' needs and wants as well as the site and budget limitations." 

In the meantime, we have compiled a list of the most common and effective tactics for landscaping on a slope. By employing the following ideas, you can transform your landscape into a little slice of paradise, even if it is a steep slope.

Terraced Yard Landscaping

As one of the top steep slope landscaping ideas, terracing is used to transform unusable areas of your property into functional spaces. This is achieved by leveling sections of the slope into individual tiers where you can create gardens, install landscaping, build a patio, and otherwise assign each terrace a functional purpose.

There are benefits to terraced yard landscaping that extend beyond reclaiming space for practical and aesthetic reasons, too. Terraces help manage erosion, reduce runoff, increase the efficiency of irrigation systems, alleviate the burden of complex landscape maintenance, and allow you to create organized landscaping zones.

If you are wondering how to landscape a sloped backyard, terraces are one of the top answers. They are a phenomenal way to eliminate the challenges of a sloped yard, reclaim space for functional use, and improve the visual appeal of your property.

Sloped Hillside Retaining Walls

Whether they’re used to create a terraced yard, prevent erosion, or otherwise improve the state of your sloped backyard landscaping, retaining walls are valuable elements for properties with a slope.

There are many types of retaining walls, and choosing materials and construction that make sense for your property and your preferences is key to ensuring that your retaining walls fulfill their purpose. From interlocking concrete blocks to natural stone, the choices you make in the design and installation of your retaining walls can make a significant impact on their effectiveness, longevity, and visual appeal.

Landscape Steps on a Slope

Navigating your hillside landscaping can be just as difficult as preventing erosion or selecting plants that will thrive on a steep slope. Part of reclaiming the steep areas of your yard involves improving accessibility to them. Landscape steps on a slope are the solution to this challenge.

This process is exactly how it sounds: creating steps that are dug directly into the hillside. Each step should be reinforced materials of your choice – typically, something like timber or stone. Steps should also be anchored with rebar or something similar to prevent shifting. The result is a safe, secure way to access sloped portions of your Capital Region property.

Slope Planting Design

When your property has a significant hill, designing with intentionality is vital. There are a handful of design principles that should guide the process, including controlling erosion, as well as special considerations that are unique to hillside landscaping. For example, focusing on staggered planting, deep root systems, ground cover (instead of grass), and plants that help stabilize the soil is essential.

While all landscaping should be thoughtful and provide both functional and visual benefits, sloped backyard landscaping requires special attention to detail. Choosing the wrong plants, incorrect installation, and lack of intentionality can lead to issues such as:

• Erosion

• Increased landscape maintenance

• Unhealthy plants

• Awkward aesthetics

Working with a landscaping professional in the Capital Region helps ensure that the slope planting design implemented on your hillside is beautiful and enduring.

How to Level a Sloping Yard

Up to this point, the techniques used for hillside landscaping have focused on making the most of a sloped property, not necessarily removing the slope. For those who want to maximize the level space of their yard, whether it’s for visual preferences or because they want a functional area to facilitate their backyard lifestyle, leveling the slope can be a viable option.

Leveling a yard is done by removing high spots and filling low spots - you may have heard this referred to as “cut-and-fill”. For mild slopes, this approach is effective, allowing you to completely level a sloped area and use it as a normal yard going forward. Retaining walls are often used to shore up this new, flat space and ensure that it remains stable for years to come.

If a slope is simply too steep to level, terracing can be used to mimic the effect on a smaller scale. While not as definitive as leveling, terraced yards do create functional spaces that can be used as you see fit.

Drainage and Erosion Control for Upstate NY

Homeowners in the Capital Region of New York are no strangers to drainage problems and erosion issues. From spring rains to heavy snowmelt, the challenges associated with runoff are well-known, and a sloped yard only makes them more concerning. If left unchecked, a steep slope will accelerate erosion and cause drainage issues to be more extreme and harder to solve, affecting both you and your neighbors downhill.

Thankfully, there are ways to mitigate these drainage-related issues. Many of the suggestions above double as forms of erosion control by disrupting the flow of water and slowing runoff. Proper grading, terracing, and plant selection can all slow, absorb, or otherwise reduce erosion concerns.

In addition to employing sloped backyard ideas that serve multiple purposes, those with severe drainage concerns should consider investing in erosion control like French drains, culverts, and hardscaping. While all of these landscaping devices work in different ways, they are complementary and can dramatically improve effective drainage.

Sloped Backyard Landscaping FAQs

Does landscaping on a slope cost more than normal?

While the ultimate cost of steep slope landscaping depends on the methods you use, the general consensus is that landscaping on a slope is more expensive than traditional landscaping. This is primarily due to the increased labor required to work on a slope, as well as the infrastructure demands of creating level spaces.

Do I need a retaining wall for my sloped backyard?

This depends on the severity of the slope and the landscaping plans you have. If a slope is greater than approximately 35 degrees, the risk of erosion is much higher, and a retaining wall (and permit) may be necessary. If you wish to create functional spaces via terraces or leveling, retaining walls will likely be used.

Can a pool be installed on a slope?

Yes, a pool can be installed on a slope, but it still requires a level area on which to be installed. Additional factors must be considered and the use of retaining walls, leveling, and grading is all likely.

How do you avoid issues with drainage and erosion for hillside landscaping?

Installing landscaping on a slope is the first and most effective step to managing drainage and preventing erosion. This can include groundcover and other slope-appropriate plants, terraces, retaining walls, and more. Further drainage solutions, such as French drains, can also be used.

Why Hillside Landscaping Requires Professional Planning

When it comes to hillside landscape design in the Capital Region and cities such as Saratoga Springs, Albany, and Clifton Park, working with a professional is essential. Steep slope landscaping is more technical than that performed on flat terrain, and it requires a degree of skill in terms of strategy, installation, and maintenance that only experts tend to have.

In our over 30 years of experience helping Capital Region homeowners achieve their landscaping dreams, we have encountered just about every type of terrain imaginable, including extremely aggressive slopes. Using our experience and passion for landscaping, we are confident that we can help your property reach its full potential, no matter what obstacles stand in the way.

To learn more about hillside landscaping, discuss your project, or simply get in touch with our in-house design team, fill out our consultation form today!