apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Planters go a long way also, and are low maintenance in comparison to a yard. Choose a variety of plants: some with color, some with height and some that are fragrant. Most perennials can be brought into a basement space (if you have one) for the winter and then will come back the next year.

I don't understand from the problem description why removing the concrete is not an option. Reconsider it. If money is an issue (as it always is) then I'd counsel waiting until you have the budget to do the project right the first time.

Relatively inexpensive halfway measures might include:

(1) Pour a thin layer of new concrete on top, and then impress a pattern on it with stamps. You can stain the new concrete and achieve a look much like stone tile at a much lower cost. See this example of what it looks like:

http://www.concretenetwork.com/photo-gallery/images/400x400Max/concrete-patios_3/93637-ca-qc-construction-products_4282.jpg

You might even be able to do it yourself.

(2) Think about removing "keyholes" of concrete in key locations, esp. near the retaining walls, so that you can plant some things without putting everything in containers. In my experience, container gardening is vastly more expensive and fiddly than just putting plants in the ground and letting nature take over. (don't get me wrong, there's a place for container gardening) With a few some smallish (say 2x6 foot) keyholes, you could plant flowers and some sort of ivy/creepers to grow over the retaining wall.

You'd probably need to hire a professional who has concrete cutting tools.

(3) Consider building one or more large stone or brick planters - say 24-30 inches deep and maybe 3x6 feet or larger dimensions - right on top of the concrete. Have a local store deliver the materials and then lay them yourself. I have built something comparable myself (i.e. unassisted) in a weekend, then had a local landscaper dump bulk soil (much cheaper than buying it bagged). If you place one or two of these planters against the house, you could grow a variety of plants plus something vertical like ivy, wisteria, lonicera, etc. up the house (or a trellis mounted on the house) to soften it up visually and lessen the amount of heat buildup from the sun. Their size gives you more flexibility in what you can plant, and the higher volume of soil makes the plants better able to handle variations in moisture and temperature.

I'd look into roof garden designs, they have a similar amount of concrete to deal with. The City Gardener/the Urban Gardener is a TV show/book series with Matt James. He does wonders to places with a lot of concrete.

Alternately, I would look into recycled rubber tiles that they make some childrens play areas out of now.
http://www.diamond-safety.com/Sofscape.htm

Paint a simple mural on your retaining wall: rosebushes (like Alice in Wonderland) or an aquarium or blue mountains fading into the distance. Let everyone help.

For plants, placing a shallow container strip of succulents against the house would soften the edges. It would be like a green roof on the ground.

The retaining wall itself doesn't look particularly attractive. It also feels cut off from the land above (that might just be the picture). If there isn't already a way up there I'd like to see some steps built in to get up to the grassy part.

I also think there is a lot of stone already in the space and would like to see something earthy in it.

I'd consider some sort of option to hide the retaining wall as much as possible. What comes to mind as the easiest to do would be large planters placed along the wall. Another thing you might think of fitting in is a low wooden storage shed for toys when they aren't in use. Perhaps something like natural wood containers with a selection of low-fuss dwarf evergreens for easy upkeep. If evergreens don't fit the bill maybe some other dwarf tree suitable for a container, or low-care perennials -- even some sort of decorative grass. You could even place a few more of these along the house to soften it up.

Otherwise, I think you need to define the space by the doors where the table and grill is as "adult" space, with other space defined as the kid space. You could do that maybe by painting a "carpet" to separate the two.

Note: Jim G's planter suggestion is very much like what I was thinking, only I was envisioning large square or rectangular wood ones. I like his idea of making your own planters too -- while you are at it you could even embed tiles or other things into the concrete planters to make it like a crazy mosaic (I'm thinking of those wild kitchen backsplashes with bits of broken pottery or seashells in it, only suitable for outside.) Or let them dry and paint them.

How about flooding the whole area with smooth little pebbles (pea gravel?) like a french garden? Then if you can hide the retaining wall with planters or a drooping vine from the top it would look much more natural. Also some trees in large planters or a pergola would be great.

http://www.tunliweb.no/Bilder_SM/_album_Paris/i20_1024pixel.jpg

an AWNING.... would provide shade, color contrast and an arcitectural effect of your choice.........

i would break up the concrete and reuse some of the pieces in a more random natural looking pattern, while planting korean grass (you don't mow it) in between the gaps. plant a tree against the wall near where the bbq is to break up that huge wall. plant plants on the hill that grown down to cover that ugly retaining wall. i would use the sail type of cover too, some nice chairs, and lots of potted flowers. you need color, texture, different heights!

Paint a tennis court on the concrete. Install a net.

Cutting stairs into the wall near the door would be a good idea. I don't see how else you can get out that way without climbing the wall. Maybe there are already stairs, but then I would say they're in the wrong place if they aren't in that picture.

The exterior of the house also seems blank. Maybe modern, it's one of those things that probably makes more sense when you can see the whole property. From the back yard/giant patio, it looks like a updated garden apartment complex. You might want to consider that side of the house a lot when you make changes to the patio.

I'm not big into gardening and would probably just hang some wall planters. I don't know what they're called, they're just sort of a pot that hangs on the wall somehow. The aforementioned stairs will give you stuff to do with the lawn and make gardens out there. That said, the urban look with planters galore would be ok if you went that route. How far back does your property go? Consider planting a tree or several.

Your stuff. You are probably already thinking this, but you could use more appropriate outdoor furniture. I also think a fun thing might be to build some sort of corral for all the baby cars, like a wooden "bin" or small fenced in area with a darling little gate. Maybe even attach it to a play area or small play house. When I saw that big patio, the first thing I thought of was to make some smaller bite-sized areas, like a gazebo/ pergola area, a smaller play area, like a raised sandbox, just some imagination space that's not too juvenile. You wouldn't want anything you couldn't remove or convert, and if you're like me, you wouldn't want something that defined and resigned all your decor to the child. It should all go with your style. Leave plenty of space for riding the toys or running, but that space doesn't really seem to feed any other activities, like reading or playing dinosaurs or house.

In essence, consider it like a loft space. You're not dividing things with walls, but you're putting up visual cues so different areas of the space are seen to be used for different types of activities and overlapping sets of people.

Frankly, I'd tackle the safety aspects, such as drainage, retaining walls, etc.

Here's why:

http://www.readybooks.us/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=LBDonation

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/64419/10

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/01/21/mudslide-report050121.html

That's a few images.

You have a hill, that slopes and appears to drain directly onto your patio. Chicago isn't immune:
http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,2233,00.html

So let me offer up a few images on various terraced yards that incorporate retaining walls or rocks:

This is undoubtedly my favorite:
http://www.sbkinc.com/weblog/2006/08/warm_modern_1.html

It makes each level into a usable level. And it provide lawn, if you like lawn, in small portions that could be easily maintained. The railing could be raised into part of a trellis to provide some morning shade.

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These stepped boxes could be neat, perhaps using them for vegetables:
http://gardening.about.com/library/gallery/bl_Terrace.htm

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A lot of sloping here, but the rocks help to retain the soil:
http://www.7626kenyon.com/id1.html

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Several ideas on this landscapers site:
http://www.prolandscapeinc.com/General%20Landscaping.htm

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As far as creating a room out there, here is a slide show to look at:
http://www.bhg.com/decorating/room/decks/fresh-air-rooms/

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One of my favorite backyard makeovers EVER!:
http://www2.oprah.com/foodhome/home/decorating/home_20030714_patio.jhtml
http://www2.oprah.com/foodhome/home/decorating/slide/20030714/home_slide_20030714_patio_01.jhtml

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REMINDER:
YOU do not have to do it all at once, this isn't a contest, and it doesn't need to be finished in a week!

But you DO want to pay attention to all aspects of your yard, from safety to beauty and create something that will address all of the needs and desires.

You could slap down something in a jiffy only to have your home flood and be filled with most of your hillside.

Is this your first summer in the house? How much entertaining have you done so far? How often do you go into the backyard? How much time do you have to maintain the backyard?

No matter what you do, you will still have a huge blank two-story wall. And it's white and reflects light. Unless you do something like this:
http://www.bhg.com/decorating/room/decks/fresh-air-rooms/?page=9

And that I think would be a fabulous look for your back yard, next to the house. With long, narrow spaces: a shady spot (the loggia), and a sunny spot (the other half of the exposed patio. Then adding on those long narrow terraces as seen in the first terrace image link I posted. And on the ends (if available) or on a complete terrace, vegetables.

It gives the backyard a "sense of adventure" wondering "what is up there?" or "what is that over there?".

And you can work in proper drainage underneath the terraces as needed to help direct any excess water away from the house and towards the street.

How's that sound?

Using the "square minimalist covered pergola," get several and attach them to the house at different intervals to shade a good amount (not all) of the space while creating an interesting layering effect. You can anchor them to the trees on the hill, or poles anchored in the ground , just ensure there is enough head room for people to venture up there. Ivy for the retaining wall was mentioned earlier, and that is probably the cheapest/best looking method for covering up that retaining wall.

I second the awning. My neighbors put up an awning over their low, red brick porch. They can "entertain" or read in the shade while the munchkins play in the sun.

I really think you need to cover up that concrete - you're NEVER going to be able to make it look and feel inviting. It's just too industrial. I would do a patio area with wooden outdoor flooring. Not the whole thing, but pretty big! And then do pebbles/gravel on the rest.

I also think you need to bring some greenery into the patio area, so it feels more a part of the rest of the garden. Some big planters perhaps.

The white wall is problematic too. I really thinks it need to not be white to match the house, but rather something that blends in with the garden. A dark color (like the dark brown accent color of the house) would look much better in my opinion, and take away that hockey rink feel. :)

Lots of good comments here. I agree with most of them, but wanted to add my two cents as well (I'm just never satisfied unless I can share my opinion...)

I tend to be a bit more modern in my approach, so this may or may not suit your style at all.

I agree with the idea of placing small rocks/pea gravel over the concrete. Perhaps to address the drainage issues true blue mentioned, it might be possible to permeate the concrete by drilling holes to allow the water to seep through. Then you could cover some or all of the surface with rocks. Xeriscaping is very big these days, i imagine it must be possible to do something similar over concrete. You could perhaps separate the area into several smaller areas - one for the little one to play, one for outdoor dining, etc. - and use different surfaces to denote this.

I also agree that stairs are important. Though perhaps they're behind you in the picture and just not visible?

I think the planters along the retaining wall are a good idea as well. Personally, I would go for rectangular planters butted up against the wall. The added soil and plants will help add at least a little more porous surface to absorb any runoff from that slope. Since it looks like that retaining wall is beginning to slope a bit, if you can afford it, I'd redo that wall. If you can't, as an interim solution I'd take down those posts and put the planters in front to hide the slope and use a material that's not likely to cave as well, like masonry. If you're industrious, you could take that on as a DIY project. Or not...

I also agree that you need some added warmth back there. I think you could achieve this through the planters. But I also have a slightly different idea for your shading. If it were my space, i would put in a slatted wood sun shade over the door that stretches over to the grass. Again, if you're industrious, this is something you could easily do yourself. It would just take some dimensional lumber, a hammer and nails. I would stain them a nice dark color to match that small amount of trim on your house. I saw a picture of something similar in a magazine and clipped the picture for my scrapbook, but don't have it with me as I'm out of the country for 2 weeks. But if you're interested, I can send it to you upon my return. A somewhat similar aesthetic, though a completely different use, is this:
http://www.metropolismag.com/webimages/2896/mjb2656_t346.jpg

This is a fun project! I know it's daunting, but it's like a blank slate - so many possibilities! And I do think you could do most of it yourself, if you want to.

Good luck, and have fun!

Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions! If you have any more after I tell you a bit more I'd love to hear them!

Janel, the sail shade company you found is one I had spoken to and they are booked through the summer! So bummed but maybe we will set it up so that we can use it next summer...

Some more information about our back patio...

*We live in Golden Colorado... where there is only about 15 inches of water a year - so no flooding issues but we do have to shovel a path for the dog to get to the yard in the winter. Plus we live on the side of North Table Mountain so we are more likely to get rockfall (actually not likely) than flooding.
*We want to retain the smooth concrete so that our daughter may learn to ride a bike and skate in the back (we live on a very steep hill with a fair amount of traffic -the local rock climbing area is one block away). We are interviewing concrete finishing companies this week to look at staining or acid washing the patio so that it has some more color variation (we are also considering maybe a checkerboard pattern with gray and brown -thx Gerry).
*The retaining wall holds back the yard. Access is behind where I shot the picture. It has retaining walls, lots of trees and a garden area. You can see some more pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23500300@N07/
*We are strongly considering building a pergola on the blank expanse of wall where there are no windows and moving the grill to the left of the back door. I really liked this week's Brooklyn roof deck (just a couple inches high with rope lighting) we may do that under the pergola...
*One reasons for not cutting into the concrete is that the rocks in the soil in and around our house are HUGE. One corner of our basement was never excavated as there is a giant boulder there. We are afraid if we cut into the concrete to plant a tree that we could find one of these where we hoped to put a tree. I do however like the idea of cutting in to plant succulents that would take less soil or depth but maybe using a horse trough for a tree or some large planters like mgn suggested. Would those look like sore thumbs? Also we have to contend with freeze and thaw and water getting trapped under new cut sections...
*As the retaining wall can not be taken out without considerable expense (and there is no way to bring in any machinery to this yard) maybe we should convert it to rammed earth or screw corrugated metal to the cribbing (Thx Gerry). Thoughts?
*I am looking at patio sets that are deeper and more oversized like the set on PBTeen (square not in a circle).

Again I am thankful for all the suggestions - especially the tennis court one LOL!