You can make a lovely garden oasis out of a slope or incline on your property. Instead of a weedy eyesore, the slope could be a lovely flower garden. Raising an organic vegetable garden is another idea. The rugged terrain can become a lovely planted area, turning a liability into an asset.
Make Terraces Where Once Was A Slope
Terraces can really beautify your landscape. At the same time, putting in terraces gives you a wider option for planting, since the area is level. The garden area is much easier to work in since it’s level. There’s no doubt, however, that making terraces is a lot of work, and can also be rather expensive depending on the materials used for the walls.
In the past, railroad ties were considered a good source of material for making retaining walls for terraces. Railroad ties have rather fallen out of favor these days, and especially aren’t recommended for organic gardens. Creating the problem is the creosote used to preserve the wood. Because it’s a toxic substance, contact with creosote can irritate the skin. The respiratory tract can be irritated by creostoe fumes.
All in all, it’s potent stuff, and not good for your health. Besides direct contact, it can leach into the water and soil. When creosote leaches into the soil, it becomes available for the plants to absorb. If you’re growing vegetable plants, you’re going to eat whatever chemicals are in the plants. With all those problems, creosote treated lumber for your terracing just isn’t a good idea.
Safe Materials For Walls
Small projects that are just little slopes might be able to use the new landscaping boards such as those found at Gardens Alive! which are made out of recycled plastics. Use bricks, concrete blocks, modular retaining wall blocks or stone for steeper slopes. The different masonry options require varying levels of expertise, so be sure you know how to build walls with the materials you opt to use.
The steepness of the slope will dictate the height of the walls since the idea to provide level beds. Higher walls obviously means they need to be that much sturdier. They also should be well anchored. There should be proper drainage for large terraces, and they should be anchored well into the sides of the slope at each end.
The dirt behind the walls will be a lot of weight pushing on them, and it will increase even more after a rain. If wall are not built correctly, they will bow outwards or even collapse.
It’s a big task to build terraces, and if you feel it’s too much to handle, there are landscaping contractors that can do the work for you. It goes without saying that hiring a contractor is more expensive than doing it yourself, since you’ll have to not only pay for materials, but the labor costs as well.
Get The Soil In Shape For Plants.
Because slopes often have erosion problems, it’s always a good idea to enrich the soil before planting. Soil amendments such a well-rotted cow manure, rich loam, compost or other soil amendments to the dirt to make it a better growing medium. Don’t enrich the soil too much, however, if you want to grow the sorts of plants that actually like poor soil.
When the soil is ready, choose your plants, whether flowers or vegetables (DirectGardening.com – Offers quality plants at great prices). Depending on what type of plants you’ve decided to raise in the terraced beds, you can grow either vegetables that vine, or flowering or foliage type vines along the top edge of the walls. Then the vines can trail down over the sides.
Terraced Beauty.
Building terraces can be a lot of work, and depending on the materials, rather expensive. However, they’re a great way to beautify a slope, turning it into a beautiful garden and improving your landscape.
It’s always nice to have more room for plants in your landscape.
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