Ramps drain water quickly and seem to hold heat better.

With the limited sunlight your options for grass are limited. Are you far enough south that you could grow St Augustine on it?

We are on the edge of the Piedmont plateau east of Raliegh.

You might hold that thought about the St Augustine. If you believe the Earth is warming, then the transition zone will move north and allow the traditional southern grasses to survive the winters. My St Augustine variety is not considered to be that cold tolerant, but it has recovered from two weekends of 14 degrees F last winter.

I believe that global warming is believing that when a computer program says there will be a 0.2 degrees change in temperature, it is significant when the global temperatures in the many locations submitting temperature information varies over 100 degrees at any one point in time.

If someone offered to pay me $99.80 to pay off a $100 dollar loan, else waiting another 6 months for the $0.20 I would accept it.