Jeffrey Gordon Smith Landscape Architecture Not my choice, our client wanted the "so called no maintenance deck" this is a plastic/trex like deck it has a real faux looking wood grain but we did take advantage of the fact that it could touch soil.
Decking can feel very stark in a garden layout due to the nature of the materials and the amount of space. This decking is considerably softened by raising each deck above the next and by edge planting grasses.
This is great. See my website for a job that I did this with large tile pads. I don't remember much if any elevation changes in the house layout, but if we raised the area behind the pool we could do this to lead up to it.