Gardening on Slopes and Hills
Gardening on Slopes and Hills
Gardening on a slope or hill is sometimes the most difficult kind of gardening you can do. Hills and slopes don’t hold water well, and they don’t hold topsoil or compost well either. Both run down to the bottom quickly, which often makes it difficult to get anything to grow on the slope overly well.
There are steps you can take that will make things easier though, and given time and attention you can have a sloped garden which will look just as beautiful as the rest of your yard.
When starting with a bare slope or hill, the first thing you’ll want to do is try to anchor the soil in some way. An excellent technique for doing this is to simply plant some ground covers that grow and spread quickly. Don’t try to start them from seed on the slope itself though, because they’re likely to end up clumped together at the bottom instead of growing along the slope as you intended. Buy some small to medium sized plants which can become established much more quickly, and plant those on the slope instead.
Another type of plant you might want to try, is any type of vine which grips and climbs on it’s own. For this you may need to run a bit of string or twine up the hill, so the vines have something to cling on to while they’re still young. Over time though, those vines will start taking root in the rocks and soil on the hill, which will help anchor and establish the area for future seasons.
If you choose to use vines for your hill, try to get those which will drop seeds naturally each season. This way you’ll have a whole new crop of vines for the hill for many years to come.
Plant flowers in tiers up the slope. If you create tiered levels on your slope, you’ll be able to plant multiple flowers and shrubs without having as much of a problem with your topsoil, nutrients, and water running off too quickly.
Tiers can be created with rocks and stones, old tree branches, railroad ties, or even garden bed borders. You may have to level small sections of the slope in order for your tier borders to sit properly, but once you have them in place you can plant seeds or starter seedling plants above the tiered border, and those should stay in place much easier for you. The soil and mulch you add to those flowers will also stay in place better, as will water and fertilizer.
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