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I'm guessing, but it looks like the boulder retaining walls nearer your house were to give you a level yard. And creating the rock lined drainage as shown in the first photo below was an excellent idea. At some point you will have heavy rain either all at once, over several days, or a combination deluge. Check the drainage area afterwards to see how it fared; excess water may rearrange the channel you made.

The steep slope between the retaining walls will never be great for lawn. Better to build stairs to traverse it, and plant decorative grasses, low shrubs and ground covers on bare spots. I show an informal, semi-wild approach.

I'm not at all sure what you were going for at the bottom of the hill.

Thank you so much for that input! Love the depiction you created too- really helps to better visualize it. My dad was suggesting 8’ wide railroad ties on that slope, but I do like the more standard stairs as you’ve laid out. Not sure if that’s DIY-able though.. will probably need to hire someone.

That little “rock river” begins at the convergence point of 3 gutters, working well so far! The bottom of the hill (end of the rock river) is usually moist soil unless we have weeks without rain.

In front of the retaining wall on the right (with the bench), the land is pretty flat and I have just planted wildflowers there as a filler for now.

So now I need to decide how I’d like to do the stairs— material, width, location. Would you keep them off-centered to stay with the more “wild”/informal design?

Youi have a challenging lot and hiring a pro (with good references) is a smart idea. They can do it all, or provide a plan that you can implement over time.

Yes, stairs are better done by someone who knows what they are doing, so hiring a carpenter could be the way to go. I like stairs because they have handrails, but I'm 69 years old. However, there may be codes that come into play depending on how steep a slope is and where you live. Landscape timbers are another way to go and are subject to the same rules as stairs. The thing about stairs is they need to be consistent in both step height and the width between treads. Inconsistencies lead to tripping. The photo below shows too many tread widths. Not Safe.

Looking Down · More Info

Positioning on the hillside is totally up to you. Do you want the path from your back door to the stairs to be a straight shot or to have a curve. If left without guidance, people will take the shortest, most direct path.

I think wildflowers are an excellent choice on a large lot. Not mowing every part of your lot will preserve already present wildflowers, some of which could be rare and/or beautiful. Mow a single path through a wildflower meadow if you need access.

Front Ridge Residence · More Info

I don't mean this to be rude but if that's the best example of all your effort expended, RUN - do not walk - to the nearest landscape designer you can find to give you some professional input. What you have there is an unsightly disaster!

Mindshift - more great points to consider, thank you! Our deck is being finished this month, and the carpenter is able to do landscape stairs as well :) I think I’ll use the same composite materials we do for the deck for the stairs so that it is uniform and cohesive. I like the idea of having a flagstone walkway from the back door to the stairs too for guidance. Much appreciated!

What is the distance from your home to the top of the embankment? from the embankment to the water's edge?

Seems like you've made up your mind but in case that changes ... just some thoughts:

You need an almost level back yard but with a slightly higher center point and slightly lower outer area on the sides with a water drainage path on each side and you want a small curb or retaining wall or row/pile of stones at the outer end of this mostly level space so so you can make sure any water turns to where you want it -- away from the house and away from the embankment that you don't want to erode. Having curb with its top ground level at the outer edge of the yard over which the rainwater flows into the drainage path will help prevent the erosion of your mostly level yard as well.

On one side of the yard, code and budget permitting, you could create brick or stone or concrete steps straight down but on the other side of the yard consider accessing the lower part of the yard by the water via a gently sloping path ACROSS the slope rather than straight down.

When your deck is built, instead of steps in the center, have the landing on one side or the other of your yard/home and then create an access to a walkway down the hill to the water that begins on that side of the yard, slope gently across the full width of the embankment (about the same length as the width of your house -- not a set of steps or walkway going directly down.

What you need is a left-to-right side-to side gently sloped walk path down that slope that itself slopes from the outer edge toward a short retaining wall with minor paved scoop at its base for the water to run by the path. You want the rainwater that ends up on the path to immediately flow toward that wall and the water trough at its base so it doesn't wash down the path or off the edge damaging the path. As the path/trough ends, create a paved or lined drainage ditch into the water to prevent erosion at the water's edge.

Realize that the only things we know is what you have told us. So we know you have worked hard to move a lot of rock. That is really about it. We don't know where in the world you are, what you want to accomplish with this project, what uses you need in a backyard, who is going to use it, or any number of other things. We don't know how much maintenance you want to get into, and whether you want a showplace or just a functional, nice backyard.

Anywhere near anywhere I've lived, those rockpiles would become a major eyesore of a weed patch in about a year since they can't be mowed. Lawn weeds are one thing. Weed trees are something else entirely.

suezbell, there isn't any pond on this property. I also thought there was water until I realized what I thought was muddy water was the bottom of a cell phone photo. The dashed line shows the actual size of the photos.

I'll tell you the same thing I did 9 months ago. It involves moving some rocks. "I think you should connect the left sitting area with the center firepit by a connecting lower stone retaining wall and connecting gravel patio floor. I want that central gravel patio between the two in a semicircle that reaches higher up the slope (even if it is a visual trick). I want a moonlight dance floor."

soften some backyard diy hardscape (houzz.com)