If it were mine, I'd install terraces. Yes, that's levelling, but only in narrow swaths. Gardening on on a slope won't be fun.

Thanks. You mean Terrace beds? I’ve thought of those with a path in the middle for water to run through.

Is it a lot of soil I’ll need to dig out to our terrace beds?

Like stairsteps. Each level is a flat bed. If the slope is very wide then, yes, that's a lot of dirt to move. A small bulldozer could do the job pretty quickly, but you'd ideally like to have some retaining walls as well. Lack of retaining walls is a recipe for a mudslide. But even then, proper drainage is important. You might start out terracing a limited length of the slope, say, a dozen feet or so, and if that works well, do the whole thing. Lots of design instructions (and cautions) available.

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=terrace+a+slope

I wouldn't excavate anything at that location. If the land above you slides you'll be the scapegoat. Those houses above you could slide, take out your house and all your assets.

Limit your gardening to in front of the fence and a raised bed on the other side of the path. Make the low side of the "raised" bed very high so that it levels out to where you want it on the high side. I'd bet you're not allowed to garden in front of the fence ??

Look at that fence along your side property line. The builder/owner is inordinately afraid of lawsuits. And in back he paved a path along the rear line of all those homes; and then fenced it off.

Thanks sorry should have clarified but my property line is between the fences only. The wooden and the metal fence to be precise.

The fence by the neighbour is temporary as construction is going on my lot. It’s a “zero lot” so all the houses are on the edge of the property line, hence the temporary fence for the neighbours by the construction company.

I should also mention, the grade is only about 5-10% max. Is it too much to just plant as is or beds are still the way to go?

That's not a mudslide slope. You could plant without terracing, but you'll have to make your rows strictly perpendicular to the grade to keep the water in them. Sounds to me like just a row of cinder blocks would do you well as a retaining wall for a terrace bed. If you see motion in them, you could drive in some rebar anchors.

So it wasn't clear from the picture, but the house in the picture isn't yours? Your lot is the empty one in the foreground? The one with all the mud?

Yeah that is right. The house is neighbour’s property.

Pretty hard to tell what to do without the house and hardscape plan in place. And the HOA rules of what you can put and how much. I would first focus on what I could do for a tall natural privacy screen against the view of the power poles/cell tower and the neighbors looking down into my house and yard. Then I would work the garden (consumables) within that plan, being aware of the house height that is blocking the south sun.

I’m just curious, why are power / cell towers considered bad if they can be viewed? Sorry genuinely don’t know and trying to understand as I’ve heard it before too.

I think I would just garden as anyone would. Dig it up, rototill it. Build raised beds. The lower right area in the picture is a little quetionable. But it could always be used as perennials bed. Asparagus, dill, dwarf fruit tree in the corner.

Yes, this is one of these what-will-work versus what-is-optimal questions that people get hung up on a lot. Planting on a sloped surface will work, but it will require some extra effort with irrigation management for best performance. If you're up to that, go for it. Water goes downhill, so one side of your sloped bed with be moister than the other.

Terrace is a good idea but a lot of work. I would just plant as is, or make raised beds. To bad it was not south facing that would have been GREAT. It will still do just fine. Dry spells might wear on thirsty plants because a lot of rain will runoff.

May I suggest that you go ahead and do some planting on the slope, to get a feel for soil conditions, drainage, and irrigation water management. Once you have some confidence in that, you might invest the effort and expense in terracing. For example, if your soil is crap, terracing with a bulldozer and cinderblocks will just leave you with a terrace full of crappy soil.

Because of the slope you won't have to worry about problems with drainage. You might try to find out when they spread out topsoil on your lot. You could spread some compost or mushroom compost over the area you plan to garden in and it'll wind up under the topsoil.

You should know that most home owners associations ban vegetable gardening.

Interesting didn’t know they would ban vegetable gardening.

What direction would you face the beds? Parallel or perpendicular to the slope?