[Porffor]

i live on a a hill.. sounds like a story i know
The garden is a gentle slope at the back - with a retaining wall which makes up some 'raised beds' for my veggies. But at the back of the garden the field behind drops into my garden by about 4 or 5' drop... just inside my fence - so i have a steep slope.

I'm wondering.. what to do with this. Thinking either raised bed (there is the base of a wall there but it's been leveled in the past. So could get busy making a wall again and fill with topsoil etc.

Or.. if I could grow something there next year as it is.. maybe fruit? thinking gooseberry or something similar.. would raspberries and or strawbs work? I could use the back fence as a backing for a fruit cage (netting) to stop the birds getting it all.

Any suggestions? At the moment it's grass with nettles just the other side of my fence - which i don't treat as like to leave things for nature if they aren't harming anyone.

Thanks

[lincspoacher]

Terracing.

[Porffor]

Guess that's a nod of approval!
will get my thinking hat on

[kezlou]

A friend of mine father put a mixture of gooseberries, strawberries and raspberries in a slope like yours and it worked a treat.
Apparently all the good nutrients fall down the slope and feed the berries quite well. He still has them there now gets a good harvest every year.

[compostqueen]

grapes  :shock:  Hic

[Porffor]

Hic   that i could add too actually a frame for them is a good option for a 'top' with netting that isn't too visable. I'm not a vino girl though so would have to have eating grapes.

Great news that success has been had from raspberries, strawbs and gooseberries though. Thanks!! That is my plan then.. will save me cutting the grass on the slope too! Might cover it over soon so the grass dies back... get ahead of myself for next year.

[Pompey Spud]

Grow some Runners. They're good climbers.

B..Boom..Tish.

Er..Pass my coat....

[dug]

Gardening on a slope? Well it's OK if you have the inclination..
 Boom Boom

dug

[Porffor]

at the 'inclination'
I did think about putting the veg patch there i must admit but thought the water draining off would be a prob for plats at the top.  :?

[dug]

I live in Dorset and one of the most noticeable features of ancient life is the 'Strip Lynchets' that terrace the side of may of the Dorset hills. There are also more than a few villages with Lytchet as a part of their name.
Linchets were the Stone through to the Iron age answer to cultivating hilly areas. Simply it is cultivating in strips about a foot or so wide that are created to run at the same height along the side of a steep hill. The next strip is about 30 inches lower and so on until the hill side is covered with a whole terrace of lines each on on the same horizontal level.

dug

[Porffor]

Thanks Dug. will google it and have a nose.