This is my first year gardening this property. I put in the garden at the crest of our slope against the forest. It gets southern sun exposure. The summer garden grew phenomenally and benefited heavily from the forest providing shade from the brutal southern sun in late afternoon. In the spring and fall that same shade prevents the garden from getting enough sun for spring/fall crops to thrive. The best solution I can see is expanding the garden down the slope and making the lower garden the spring/fall garden and the upper garden the summer crops. However that space is 130’x50’. It would cost more than I can spare to install raised beds and/or terraced beds in that space. Has anyone successfully gardened a slope without terraced/raised beds? If so, how did you do it? Would you mind sharing photos if your have them? Unfortunately for me the slope ranges between a 19 and 26 degree grade so I really can’t use my tractor to dig safely. Thanks for any tips/advice!
by Gardeningcrones
26 Comments
If you have a tractor, terraced beds should cost you zero dollars.
I’m no expert but I feel like if you planted from top to bottom and kinda added a little lip to each row as you decended you’d limit run off from top to bottom. It doesn’t look like that bad of a slope. But I could be wrong.
You could also check the permaculture subreddit for ideas and do something like bushes on one end where it’s hard to till and annuals on the part that is easy to till.
Oh man do you live in the Himalayas this looks pretty steep
What kind of slope are we talking here? Because this looks close to flat.
You could get raised beds using free/cheap stuff from the usual websites.
If not, perhaps the no dig method could still work?
Hügelkultur
This looks like a great space, I would just fence the area you want to use and plant directly in the ground in rows oriented to maximize sun.
Mind sharing what type tractor and implements you have? Obviously be safe and maybe the pictures are deceiving and it’s steeper than it looks but personally I’d be comfortable tackling that with a tractor.
The other option if you want it flatter without digging is order topsoil and use the tractor to make an area flatter
I garden on a slope. My only real problem is that irrigation is a pain with my low pressure as the bottom drippers run at a far higher rate than the top ones.
Troy built used to have an instructions for using a tiller to make terraces.
Interesting enough there are agricultural methods for farming on slopes. But its a lot of work to build up correctly without spending money. The main issue will be water retention and drainage.
I believe its called terrace farming. Its also not built in a day.
That slope facing south is highly prized ….
If there are some dead logs in the forest, you could get creative and get some beds going with them. Make some squares.
Use buckets, pots, and tires to grow in.
My backyard slops, no to the same extent you have, but you can use this to your advantage when it comes to to drainage for your garden beds
My garden has a rather steep grade to the south and it produces just fine. My guess is a north facing slope wouldn’t be as good but still doable with spacing yo max sunlight
I think it will be fine as long as you put some type of drainage towards the bottom…or plant things that like a lot of water..melons, cuces, etc.
That is heaven on earth for a garden area.
I would swale the hillside and plant a food forest. You can leave the grade as is, aside from the swales/other water design strategies.
Make individual deep holes for each plant. Easier to water and fertilize individually because it is lower than the surface and the water stays with the plant and don’t run.
I have been meaning to terrace my sliped gardenfor years. Haven’t gotten around to it yet. Had the best garden I’ve ever had this year.
I do have to dig a little trench/drainage area with a shovel every year so rain doesn’t just wash sections of it out.
Put an anchored waist-high retaining wall on the bottom to collect runoff into deep beds, I’d suggest quarry wasterock (which can be had damn cheap depending on where you live) and then do your rows lengthwise. Put your less thirsty crops towards the top of the slope and your thirstiest near the bottom. Make sure there are lanes between the beds as wide as the beds where the grass is retained. Use quarry rock to line the divide between beds and lane, with more emphasis on the downslope sides. Cut out the sod in the bed sections and turn over the soil to aerate, then put down tar paper to prevent reclaiming by the grass. Use clean soil mixed with 10% small gravel to mound the bed sections, leaving dips in the mound between individual plantings to allow water to flow downhill. If done properly and maintained year after year, this should mold itself into a terraced system. The need to mix in gravel in the soil will go away if you keep rejuvenating the same soil. Invest in some silt fencing for the beds until they’ve set. It’s essentially just a modified potager style.
That hll does not look that steep. Kind of scratching my head at how tou flipped the tractor. To be fair I have never heard of it before so have no experience with it.
Honestly it depends on what you want to grow.
Not sure if your land is cleared of rocks but would suggest saving rhe rocks and think about using the stones to start a wall to terrace into, perhaps.
Have you seen large farm fields, they easily have slopes like that in them. I’d plant what you have
Rome wasn’t built in a day. If you’re trying to save money, start at the top and gradually work down over a several years. That will spread out your costs and effort.
Or bite the bullet and have a pro come in and terrace it for you. Extra cost up front but it will save you huge amounts of time and work.
I garden on a slope, though not anywhere steep as yours. I use boxes and have gradually taken over the whole area over the course of five years. Just a little more each year.
Build a hugelkultur bed on a slope, place it on contour (perpendicular to the slope) to slow water runoff and capture it, or create terrace beds by digging a path alongside a retaining wall. Build the bed by layering logs at the base, filling gaps with organic matter like sod, leaves, and compost, and finishing with topsoil. The downhill side of the mound should have gently sloping sides, or erosion can become an issue.
I’d aim for horizontal beds stepping down that slope. Alternate your deep root shrubs (berries, bay bushes, small fruit trees) with annual crops like tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. Not necessarily all in one row. You can make a more checkerboard row wherever you want to stabilize with deeper root plantings.
Then, below ground crops like potatoes and other root vegetables. Just have a deep root stabilizing plants every 10 or 12 feet. Steep spots can be covered with vining plants like cucumbers and melons.
When I grew up, my parents had a one acre garden that sloped like that. I spent 20 summers working it. It was incredibly simple, but incredibly successful. No beds, just rows of plants running from the top to the bottom with a furrow next to each row. There was an irrigation ditch at the top of the field, and twice a week we opened a gate and let water run down all the furrows at once. You could use a hose and just let it run in one until the water reaches the bottom of the hill then move to the next furrow. For a little money you could make a PVC pipe with an opening for each furrow so you can do them all at once.