Thanks! Yeah the "slope" has two causes -- one being the swamp next door, which flows into our yard in the front right; we're planning to put some drainage pipe in to help with that. The other is the previous owners, who buried their trash in the back left, and which is coming back up... I found a knife the day before yesterday, and put it on one of the two tables out there. Then I forgot about it yesterday when I put down the third shade cloth, and ripped it in an unseemly fashion (unseamly? :) ).
Re: lazy gardening: I've read a modification to an old quote, "Laziness is the mother of invention" -- hence the remote control. :)
Dang, that's some interesting circumstances to deal with. Flooding is no stranger to gardening situations, but a trash heap is a new one! The pipe sounds like a good plan, especially for a swamp. Bummer about the shade cloth. Mishaps are annoying and time consuming.
Excellent sentiment and that quote is spot on!