sloping plot

Hi everyone

I have been reading the forum and would like some advice please.  I have a plot that is on a slop and very uneven.  my husband says it should be leveled out is that correct?  Just read that if it slopes the water guzzling plants benfit at the bottom :?

thanks Martin
I have found lots of whole bricks!

I'm in the middle of building raised beds at the moment but have quite a short steep slope to contend with. What i'm planning to do is "wall" up from the bottom and level it with the top of the slope and fill it with manure, peelings, anything. Hopefully, this will become my asparagus bed. You could level off your plot in stages to give you a series of 'steps' which should even out your water distribution. Just an idea anyone see a flaw in it? all comments welcome.

Sounds good to me, raised beds across the slope will give you a level surface. There's a fair bit of work involved, but it will definitely be worth it. And yes, there will be a lower depth of soil on the higher side, but you can get round this, with a bit of extra effort.

 I would take off the topsoil over your proposed bed area, level the subsoil and then replace the topsoil. I've done this before and it worked very well for me.

 If you break up the subsoil and add bulky organics (half-made compost is ideal, you want something fibrous which breaks down slowly) it will open up the texture and allow much better rooting and drainage. You are not adding the fibrous matter for it's manurial benefit, but simply to keep the structure of the subsoil open. It will be many, many years before you need to dig again. You may never have to.

As I have already said, it will be a lot of effort, but will reward you in spades (no pun intended )  in subsequent years.

How big the angle of the slope is I think, Green Goddess, if you do or don't want to do anything about, little slope is good.

Being foreign, I don't know what a slop is mind, might be messing up here.

I'm in Bristol and in slippy conditions the plot I have is on such a slope I can stand still at the top on the grass path and glide without trying (or wanting to) end up near the bottom. The old guys around me seem to split the plots and put wooden barriers through the plots to stop the top soil sliding down, seems to work and it would be too "interesting" to terrace

Rob that sounds like major excavation works to me!  Worrying cos I also have thin topsoil layer.  The clay subsoil is pretty much solid and goes down I don't know how far

But it makes sense.  Last year I made some beds by just diggin down and then piling the soil up into mounds (no edging), and although it worked for that crop, by the end of the year it had levelled itself.

It is a bit of a chew on, but it saves you so much work in the long run that it's well worth putting yourself out for. There aren't any rules about having to do it all in one go, aim for one or two beds a year. Before you know it you'll have done the lot.

If it still brings you out in a sweat just reading about raising beds and double-digging, it's possible to get a good, workable depth of topsoil by digging an inch or two deeper each year until you're happy with it.