Rick - Believe it or not, my backyard slopes. I have been wanting to add some terraces along the width of my backyard. Fortunately, they are not as steep as yours sounds like. My challenge is erosion. I get a lot of rain every year and it washes the dirt further towards the edge of my backyard property. I don't want to have to dangle from a rope in a few years! LOL!
My next door neighbor of 20+ years passed away this summer. She was a lovely person. She really didn't have much of a garden in her yard because her screened in pool took up most of her backyard. Ironically, the pool was built for her husband who passed away about 16 years ago. She could not swim, so she rarely used the pool. She loved coming over to my home to just walk around the garden areas. She had a thing for concrete statuary and bought some beautiful pieces for her pool patio area. There was recently an estate sale and all of her statuary was sold. There were two pieces that I REALLY wanted. Partly because I had envisioned a place for them in my backyard and partly because I wanted something to remember her by. They were marked much higher than I could afford. The 3rd day of the estate sale, everything was half priced. I waited and watched. Many people were interested, but all were waiting for that last day for the best price. I got there first and bought both of the pieces at a terrific price. They are now a part of my gardens in memory of my dear neighbor. I know she would be pleased they now grace my yard.
One statuary went right into the top tier of the cinder block bed and it looks beautiful there. It changes up the whole look of that garden area. It went from a cinder block raised bed, to more formal garden area because of the statuary.
The other piece was a bird bath fountain which I added to that same garden area. It was placed near the outer bed near my house.
Here you can see both pieces plus my concrete bird bath looking through the outer arbor entrance. That whole garden room looks totally different now with those pieces of statuary. Estate sales are a great place to acquire some beautiful and inexpensive pieces of garden art! When I say "inexpensive", BOTH pieces together cost me $80! I could have never gotten anything like that otherwise. I don't know what they run retail, but I know they would be very expensive! I have had many people tell me to check out estate sales, but that was the first one I ever went to. The 2nd or 3rd day is the day to go for the best prices!
