Erosion control ideas

anectarine1
anectarine1 Posts: 27 ✭✭✭

We are in the last stages of building a house. A permit requirement in our county says that we have to grow vegetation on every area that was disturbed. We have a very steep slope that I can’t get grass to grow on. It might be the heat- not sure. It gave me an idea that maybe I could grow my medicinal garden on this slope. Anyone have experience of gardening on a slope? What would you grow?- medicinal or otherwise. Thanks in advance!

Comments

  • pamelamackenzie
    pamelamackenzie Posts: 143 ✭✭✭

    If you remember what was growing there previously, that could give you ideas of what type of plants to grow. Or look around for similarly steep slopes in the area. Maybe at bottom of it you could create a raised bed to make a level spot to grow in. Then go up from there and see if you can dig out some more level terraces to plant on at various levels.

  • chimboodle04
    chimboodle04 Posts: 286 ✭✭✭

    Are you able to terrace it at all? It could help to increase the accessibility and variety of what you can grow there...

  • herbantherapy
    herbantherapy Posts: 453 ✭✭✭✭

    @anectarine1 I have a few follow up questions before suggesting anything.

    1. what kind of sun exposure does your slope have?
    2. what Gardening zone are you in?
    3. what kind of soil is there now? And how much are you willing to amend it?
    4. is terracing an option?
    5. How much area do you need to cover?

    I have a medicinal garden on my slope but I did terrace. It gives me more surface area to use, a solid place for my feet to harvest and sow, and it allows for slowing down the water which is the real reason I terraced. My slope was slipping away to washout so I needed the water to seep and drain rather than rushing over the land. One side is in part sun and the other in full sun.

  • anectarine1
    anectarine1 Posts: 27 ✭✭✭
    edited August 2019

    There was a lot of grass, tree roots and weeds in the area previously. They dug a little deeper down when finishing excavation and the soil feels like clay- very compact, full of roots from the trees farther up the hill. It has a great amount of sun since it has southern exposure. We are in the Pacific NW and I believe the zone is 7. Terracing is an option but I can’t spend a lot of money on materials or rock to hold up the hillside at this time. If anyone has suggestions on what you have used, that would be great! I am willing to amend the soil if needed. It is a pretty large area, maybe 1/8 acre

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Are you on the east of the Cascades, or the West ? - I know a gardener in NE Seattle zone 7, who terraced their almost acre both below their house, as well as above it. The lower part was about like yours, but over 4 years she made a near miraculous transformation, during which time she was also in the same Fruit-tree group, of which I am a member in another county.

  • Obiora E
    Obiora E Posts: 517 ✭✭✭✭

    I would recommend planting native plants. Many native plants are also medicinal and/or culinary (i.e., Yarrow, wild ginger, Goldenrod, elderberry, etc.). Here are some resources that I found that you may find useful:


    Good luck to you!

  • spowell07
    spowell07 Posts: 37 ✭✭✭

    Maybe try a food forest.  A food forest might include chestnut trees as a tall canopy tree layer. Apple trees grow below the chestnut trees. Meanwhile, currant bushes grow as an understory layer beneath the apple trees. A host of edible herbs and mushrooms grow underneath, and perhaps even grapevines use the apple trees as trellises. With having the larger trees all the way down to ground cover will not only help prevent erosion but also give you a living garden year after year that doesn't need weeded or fertilized from us humans. Laying out your slope in this way allows nature to step back in and do her beautiful self in the beat way possible.

  • anectarine1
    anectarine1 Posts: 27 ✭✭✭

    Great ideas. I love the food forest plan and terracing ideas. Thanks! Now to get to work!

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2019

    How much actual experience have you had, even just helping someone else develop a "food Forest". Just curious.

  • anectarine1
    anectarine1 Posts: 27 ✭✭✭
    edited August 2019

    I’ve been gardening for over 10 years. I’ve tried a few groupings of plants but never on a bigger scale. This is a pretty big undertaking- a whole hillside! I’ve read several books on the subject but am definitely not an expert!

  • anectarine1
    anectarine1 Posts: 27 ✭✭✭

    I’m curious if anyone else has had great success with a food forest? How did you start out?

  • cre8tiv369
    cre8tiv369 Posts: 67 ✭✭✭

    Swales, 3 feet wide, use/recycle some cheap used brick (not cinderblocks as they are toxic and leach coal ash toxins, red clay brick) at the drain ends where the swale drains into the lower swale (stops erosion). Plant it with diverse edibles, preferably in a permaculture food forest style, go for plants with strong roots that can thrive in wet clay (if you are in Western WA). Since this is most likely below your house, and global warming is about to turn Western Wa into a massive dried out tinderbox/wildfire magnet, keep that in mind when choosing plants (no conifers, cedars, etc). If you get it right with the permaculture food forrest, then you should never need to water it, very rarely need to prune or do anything to it other than collect edibles when they are ready. And it should look good year round and be stable and safe.

  • cre8tiv369
    cre8tiv369 Posts: 67 ✭✭✭

    There are a lot of food forrest video online for free, there is also a lot about permaculture and permies.com is a great site and resource for that as well. Go through all the free stuff online first. That should be plenty to get you started or directed towards a book. Visualize your hillside in full growth but plant it for immediate full coverage (knowing some plants will get crowded out, thinned out, or shaded out). Since it is a steep slope, you might have to transplant or sub in shade plants as it grows. Natives are good, low maintenance on a steep slope is a must, you might need drip lines at first (and depending on climate change drying everything out, you might need them in the future as well). Plant selection is an amalgamation what you want, what will grow, and what is low maintenance (you do not want to be constantly working a steep slope unless you are 20 years young and enjoy pain, besides, a food forest is supposed to be no maintenance). Figure out what you want, flowers, lilacs, lavender, blueberries, small fruit trees, dwarf ginkgo biloba tree that provides medicine/tea, and turns an incredible brilliant yellow in the fall, herbs, etc. How will it paint the hill in bloom, how will it look in full foliage, how will it look in fall. You have a canvas to paint as you wish, with limited restrictions by nature, but it’s still art inviting you to create a picture that will transform with the seasons and if you want, it will provide both beauty and food. It’s very cool! Good luck and have fun!

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I came across this information, maybe it can work for you.

    Crinkle-leaf Creeper Info The family Rosaceae includes many of our favorite fruits as well as roses. Creeping raspberry is one of the family but it has a growth habit more closely aligned with wild strawberries. The plant merrily rambles over rocks, hills, depressions and wide spaces but is easygoing and can be controlled mechanically. Rubus calycinoides (syn. Rubus hayata-koidzumii, Rubus pentalobus, Rubus rolfei) is native to Taiwan and provides an excellent low maintenance groundcover in the landscape. The plant performs well in either hot, dry sites or areas where moisture fluctuates. It can help stabilize soil in erosion prone areas, choke out perennial weeds and, yet, still allows naturalized bulbs to peek their heads up through the ornamental foliage. The plant’s scrambling nature does not allow it to self-adhere to plants or other vertical structures, so it is confined tidily to the ground. Creeping raspberry is a green foliaged plant but there is also a golden leaved cultivar. Crinkle-leaf creeper grows just 1 to 3 inches (2.5-7.6 cm.) in height, but it can spread and spread. The deep green evergreen leaves are crinkly and scalloped. In fall and winter, they bear rusty pink edges. The flowers are tiny and white, barely noticeable. However, they are followed by golden fruits resemble chubby raspberries.


    Read more at Gardening Know How: Crinkle-Leaf Creeper Info: Learn How To Grow Crinkle-Leaf Creeper Plants https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/groundcover/creeping-raspberry/how-to-grow-crinkle-leaf-creeper.htm

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2019

    Hi again,

    I was raised European, incldg. w/ the easy Metric system where all is based on very common-sense ten's. -- So when was confronted with "12 inches = 1 foot, & 1760 yards = a mile, & 4,840 square yards (or 660 feet by 66 feet) = one acre", Imagine how totally ! confused I was, lol. - And to this day I need to deal with a calculator. - In the Middle Ages, the acre was described as the area that a yoke of oxen could plow in a day. It originally differed in size from one area to the next, but was ultimately fixed at 4,840 square yards. A square-shaped acre would then be about 208.7 by 208.7 feet (because 208.7 x 208.7 = ~43,560).

    An acre 100 feet wide would be 435.6 feet long : how I figgered out that currently we are on 1/4 of an acre, Half of which is 1/8 of an acre = the area that I planned for our foodForest: you can see about 2/3 of that in my discussion: food-Foresting

    Have wondered: is your 1/8 of an acre the entire site?, or is that just the Hill you want to grow, possibly a foodForest on too? - And from this discussion with others here, what have you discovered thus far? - Anyway, just letting you know that I've been thinking about you, & wishing you @anectarine1 all the Best...

  • Merin Porter
    Merin Porter Posts: 1,026 admin

    We are in SW CO, zone 6a, and we have a lot of Gambel Oak and wild roses growing on our steep hillside. They were volunteers, and require zero maintenance, which is nice (although, honestly, I wouldn't really have planted wild roses on purpose there because the thorns are NO FUN). So, I think it would depend on the access you need to that hillside, plus the amount of care you want to invest there -- use native plants if you're just looking for erosion control with little-to-no maintenance. And, if you're still looking for input, you might consider asking at your local Extension Office. I've gotten some good advice from mine in the past....