Landscping

Paving the walk path.

After several years moving into our house finally we got time to think about landscaping our walk path on the side. As shown in previous pictures the neighbouring land is higher than our block. This required a retaining wall. I added a retaining wall leaving little bit of space for a small garden bed. Afterwards added pavers to our pathway. After watching few videos online I was able to do it myself. Perhaps not the best paving job but I'm still happy with the way they look.

Here are some pictures.

Before landscaping

We are thinking of doing landscaping of the side and backyard of the house. At the moment there are few factors that needs to take into consideration. First 4 photos shows one side of the house which has deep cut compared to the neighbours land. 

In the above picture you can see the house is bit lower than the fence. There is a agricultural drainage around the house. The white pipes are around the house which gives access to the drainage.

All these photos show the ground level of the house and the fence. It seems we need a retaining wall if we want to have level surface.

This pipe in the above photo is pretty low. So I would assume we will need to put a protective cover around it to ensure the soil will not go over it.

This is the same side of the house but towards the back. There is still a considerable amount of difference between the level of the fence and the house.

Above picture shows the backyard. There is again a fall away from the house toward the back fence. Now this also need to be made level. Again the method comes to my mind is using a retaining wall. However where do I put the retaining wall? Two options available to me are;

1. Cut the soil about 1 meter from the house to the same level of the other end of the house and put a retaining wall. Not much filling will be needed since the soil will have to be cut to level the ground.
2. Fix a retaining wall 1 meter away from the back boundary (fence) to the hight of the base of the house. Fill soil between retaining wall and house.

I'm not quite sure which is the best option or else are there any other methods available.

This is the outdoor living area of the house. Our intention is to put a wooden deck on this area so that it would look nicer.