Hillside garden ideas

As I searched for ideas on how to transform my useless hillside of grass into a productive garden I think I have looked at pictures of every hillside garden on the web! So far here is the basic idea of what I will aim for but knowing me will never look this neat and tidy.

Image from http://www.growingvegetablegardens.com/create_raised_beds.html#

 Easy to build as well as inexpensive, easy to add protection from the wildlife and easy to add cloches for extending the growing season much like the picture below from 

http://yearroundveggiegardener.blogspot.com/2012/02/mini-hoop-tunnels-in-summer.html.

It looks basically the same angle slope as my hillside and I like the idea of  the clover in the top picture between the boxes too. I probably will do more wood chip mulch in the high traffic areas as well as lots of mulch on the beds to keep the mud down in the winter and hold in the moisture in the summer but the nitrogen fixing clover will be a great addition to areas waiting construction as well as those that are not traveled much. Clovers will also draw in pollinating bees, provide nutrient rich mulch and will not need to be mowed. After researching many ground covers a low growing clover seems to be the best choice for my application.

I also am going to be practicing the no till gardening somewhat like you can see on the documentary film Back to Eden. It just makes sense, and I like common sense ideas. If you haven't watched it I feel it is a must see for any backyard gardener. It would take a lot of hauling of mulch up to the beds to start with but to haul mulch, place it, tend it and never have to till or turn the ground again would in the long run make this lazy gardener very happy!

You can find the Back to Eden film here: http://backtoedenfilm.com/  There are also a lot of interviews with Paul Gautschi, the gardener I really enjoyed listening to on this youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/L2Survive.

I like the Back to Eden style because I am a common sense but rather haphazard and lazy style gardener. I don't like the look of all perfect even rows or the messy permaculture food forest styles either. So I will shoot for somewhere in between and have a CS garden... Common Sense, Cathy Style as easy as I can make it and still get lots of yummy and organic veggies gardening!

In the beginning...

Well to be honest with myself and everyone else this is not the beginning as we have lived here over a quarter of a century. We tried to move twice but both times events transpired that forced us to move back.Yes, God I finally get it, this is where we belong. I am not always quick to hear but always try to be willing to listen.

I have always loved to garden but our busy consumer lives got in the way. Recent personal event slowed us down and recent global and political events made me stop and listen. There is a promise God made that plants hope of a bountiful harvest in the heart of any gardener and that promise can be found in Genesis 8:22: 

 “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”  

So I will do my best to create a productive forest of vegetables and fruits on my little plot.

January 2013-Here is what I am starting with, a more than slightly sloping suburban lot on the very edge of the city limits. I will have to address the problems of erosion, deer, raccoon, feral cats and shade from our enormous Fir,Oak and Sycamore trees. BUT I do have wonderful soil as the previous owner was an avid gardener and I have placed leaf mulch on the soil all the years I have lived here. 

A few years back I put in two ponds and a bog filter which I will keep and somehow transform the space above them into a greenhouse. The above picture was taken after I mostly cleaned the middle pond. There is an abundance of duck weed and native pond plants in the summer for wonderful compost materials.

I wish I had taken before pictures of the bog, it was a jungle of water filtering plants that worked very well to keep the water continuously crystal clear but sadly none edible so out it came and this is a during photo as I transform it into a multi purpose water filter. For this summer as I work to transform my hillside I plan to grow in earthbox style planters some sitting atop the lava rock for drainage and moisture and some scattered around my patio and front yard. Edible water plants will be added to the bog for filtering.  Please comment any suggestions on bog plants that you may have experience on. Note that we are in  the zone 8 climate of the Pacific Northwest but also this is a very protected SouthWest facing site that will eventually have a greenhouse cover over it not only to enhance the sun for off season growing but to help keep the leaves and needles out of the ponds.

Leaf compost and wood chip mulch are prolific not only on my small site but as a community resource too. I am getting clean slightly composted wood chip mulch from a local tree service. I have no place to pile it by the street as my front yard is much steeper than the back and I doubt the neighbors would appreciate a big pile in the middle of the street! So my wonderful helpful Dad gets me one pickup load at a time from a city storage lot that I dump in my driveway. They will load it for me with their bobcat for a very small fee that worth it for me since I already have to haul it by bucket to the garden tiers. You can see the neighbors carport behind my piles of yard compost...that is how steep my front yard is, a 4 to 10 ft retaining wall.

Well as the old saying goes "make hay while the sun shines"  As for me I am going outside to make use of my never ending Sycamore twigs and my new toy, a Sun Joe electric chipper and make wood chips as the sun doesn't shine here in beautiful moisture rich Oregon.