any terracing suggestions

[Doc]

we have a section of property that would be great for gardening. Already cleared but on a steep hillside. I'm looking for anyone with suggestions or experience with putting in terracing for gardening. Would be used more for small fruits or vegetable garden.

looking forward to the tips. . . :D
Doc

[drobinson]

If you have lots of rock, stack them in rows around the hillside and fill in dirt, compost, leaves, etc. on the up-hill side. Or, better still, make raised beds (raised on the lower side only) up to level and thus create mini-terraces that are easier to fill and control than long terraces, especially if the soil is rocky. Old railroad ties will work to hold the dirt, at least until they rot, but contain creasote, which is not exactly totally unsafe, yet is not good for humans. Rocks, cement blocks, etc. all work (this is what I have used on my sloping gardens). These will last several lifetimes.

[DPDanae]

We used preformed "rocks" from a company called Soil Retention. They come in several different sizes, including those needed for building "gigundo" terraces. :) I'm pretty sure they're at <soilretention.com> My husband was able to install the entire wall by himself, albeit it took him all summer. He built a two terrace structure in our back yard - a narrow one for shrubs above a lower, wider one for a garden. They're nifty blocks with space between the blocks for planting ground cover - thereby hiding the wall! They can be installed onto existing hills or without soil but with adding the soil as you go. If I discover some other name for them, I'll write again. Good luck on keeping your hill where you want it!

Okay - I went and looked it up. Definitely "Soil Retention". Specifically, the name of the stone is Verdura. We used the Verdura 30, good up to 15 feet high. We only did two 3 foot high walls for our terracing.

[TennOC]

Doc: How did this work out for you? Hope it went well.

[TastyofHasty]

One suggestion in a book on permaculture I read was to dig a trench on the UPHILL side of trees you want to plant. Rainwater flowing down the hill goes into the trench and thus soaks into the area directly below (where you plant your trees. (sigh!) if only we had a bulldozer ...

[40lb farmer]

i knew some folks whom lived in the snowbird area...

the trench method worked well. they took the exhumed dirt and mixed it with topsoil from home depot and added 10-10-10 and peat moss. the garden area was approximately 20 feet downhill from the trench, which was about as big as a cord of wood.
the till mixture was set on top of the existing soil and bordered with railroad ties for bedding support.

[DPDanae]

Back again! I took some pictures of our yard and posted them on my blog. If anyone wanted to see the soil retention terraces that we put in, this would be the place. There is one BEFORE the walls were built and some after. I don't know if this will be helpful or not, but I thought I'ld offer it up to the mix.
http://34thparallel.typepad.com/photos/backyard_evolution/index.html
Smiles - Danae

[40lb farmer]

Back again! I took some pictures of our yard and posted them on my blog. If anyone wanted to see the soil retention terraces that we put in, this would be the place. There is one BEFORE the walls were built and some after. I don't know if this will be helpful or not, but I thought I'ld offer it up to the mix.
http://34thparallel.typepad.com/photos/backyard_evolution/index.html
Smiles - Danae

thanks for the pics. the hill thta i described before was a 30 degree slope. that large area does not look like it needs much for soil erosion, maybe a couple of 2x12 along the down slope edge. you'll want them about 4" above ground (8" below) to catch run off and prevent under cutting. also take a look at what's behind the wall: if it is not footed properly runoff will undercut it and it'll be coming down ontop of your shrubbery.

[DPDanae]

Whew! Don't I know it!! Last year when we had more rain than we'd had here in Southern California "in a hundred years," the wall behind us (part of the uphill neighbor's property) started bowing in - TOWARDS our property. Maybe fences make good neighbors, but unreinforced walls are the problem child. Turns out it was put in during the '60's and they weren't as picky about rebar, etc. AND - we live 1 mile from the San Andreas Fault!! YIKES! :eek: The neighbors WERE doing something a while back - I think they've taken a mental vacation about the whole thing. :( Sigh.

[TastyofHasty]

So you-all are the ones that got all our rain!! :( I remember the news story about the town that had a mudslide wipe it out! Weird weather.

[DPDanae]

So you-all are the ones that got all our rain!! :( I remember the news story about the town that had a mudslide wipe it out! Weird weather.
It's all true! Well, at least for the town that got wiped out. Where I live is basically ... a desert (we call it chaparral). So when it rains, it all runs ... downhill. Down PAVED streets, down flood channels, etc. taking anything in its path. Then, if we get enough of it, it saturates the loosely held together soils and at some point ... it just slides away. As it did above that town. We've had some strange weather again this year. It wouldn't have been strange if it had happened a month ago, but we're having winter now - in March. Talk about your March Madness!! :rolleyes: I check my roses and peas every day and they seem to be holding their own against the hail, sleet and cold. Thank goodness it warms right up into the '60s the day after a storm!