How to Make a Hillside Raised Bed Garden

Tame hillsides for planting by creating a series of terraced raised beds.

Hillsides can present challenges to gardeners, because erosion can occur, leaving your plants with insufficient earth to support them. Terraced beds can help to solve the problems a hillside area presents. Unlike standard raised beds, which are often about 4 feet wide by 10 feet long, engineer your hillside raised beds to the contours of the area where you're building them. Make your terraced beds level by increasing the height of wood or other materials at their downhill edges.

Things You'll Need

• Measuring tape
• Boards, rocks or concrete blocks
• Mortar mix (optional)
• Screws or nails
• Screwdriver or hammer
• Compost
• Topsoil
• Organic materials

Instructions

1. Measure the hillside you plan to landscape and plot the dimensions on paper. Then mark where you will build your raised beds, depending on the degree of slope and the general contours of your hillside. Leave walkways between beds to allow easy access to them.

2. Build wooden or rock border frames for each bed you plan to create. Attach each board to its neighboring board at the corners, using nails or screws. If you need to add height to the downhill edge of a bed to make it sit level on the hill, cut additional boards for the leading edge and then attach them to 2-by-2 inch lumber inside the frame at the corners of the downhill edges.

3. Move your completed wooden bed frames to their designated places on your hillside. If you prefer to use rocks or concrete blocks, stack them around the edges of your beds on the hill until the planting area is deep enough for the plants you want to grow. Then fill each bed with layers of any type of compost, topsoil, fallen leaves, peat moss, wood ashes and other organic materials.

4. Fill each bed with layers of any type of compost, topsoil, fallen leaves, peat moss, wood ashes and other organic materials. Water your beds well before you plant them.

Tips & Warnings

• You can make your raised beds any size, but try to keep them fairly small to allow ease of access to them and around them for ease of weeding and watering.

• Curved beds are easier to build using rocks as a border rather than boards. Using mortar is optional but can contribute to greater stability of your frame.

• Consider setting up a drip irrigation system for ease of watering, especially if your hillside is steep and access to it is difficult.

• Avoid using old railroad ties if they are treated with or oozing creosote.

References

• "Lasagna Gardening"; Patricia Lanza; 1998
• University of Missouri: Raised-Bed Gardening

Resources

• U.S. Dept. of Agriculture: Terracing