on a slope
I want to move my garden for next year into my yard as currently it is in my sister in laws yard and in the way of the path of the tractors so I cannot fence it in. the problem is that most of my yard slopes 1 way or another. can I plant a garden on a small slope without a problem or do I need to do something to fix the slope?
I hope you won't mind if I get a few words in about something I don't know much about, Dixana . . . you can stop reading at any time and just roll your eyes 
because I've been gardening for decades and never had anything beyond very, very slightly sloping ground to work with. I've always been curious how well I'd do on a hillside!
I have watched subsistence hoe agriculturalists deal with sloping ground . . . they will work along at a common level and pull soil back towards them with the hoe. They do an awfully good job at burying weeds and such while they are doing that. Essentially, the ground is leveled about the distance they can reach with the hoe. Then they take a step up, and cultivate and level the next step
.
Working with a tiller, I know that even a slight level is sometimes very problematic for the dang, smoke-belching machine! I think I'd be very careful to line it up along a level route and just take off following that as closely as possible. The alternative might be "taking off" straight downhill at a gallop . . . until I hit bottom
!
Let's say I used a shovel instead of that contraption. Again, I'd want to have a very clear understanding of where I wanted to go -- on the level, along the hillside. Then I could work along digging down while moving the soil on the uphill about 5 feet over to build a ridge. The furrow, the width of the shovel, may need to be deepened, some of the soil from the next furrow may also need to be moved to the ridge. I'd work from uphill to the ridge, building it slightly above the level of the bottom of the first furrow.
The width of 3 shoveled furrows across should be more than enuf for a bed that one could reach across. A ridge of 2 shovel widths on the downhill side should be adequate for a permanent path. Then, I'd move another step up the slope. Terracing.
Steve
because I've been gardening for decades and never had anything beyond very, very slightly sloping ground to work with. I've always been curious how well I'd do on a hillside!I have watched subsistence hoe agriculturalists deal with sloping ground . . . they will work along at a common level and pull soil back towards them with the hoe. They do an awfully good job at burying weeds and such while they are doing that. Essentially, the ground is leveled about the distance they can reach with the hoe. Then they take a step up, and cultivate and level the next step
.Working with a tiller, I know that even a slight level is sometimes very problematic for the dang, smoke-belching machine! I think I'd be very careful to line it up along a level route and just take off following that as closely as possible. The alternative might be "taking off" straight downhill at a gallop . . . until I hit bottom
!Let's say I used a shovel instead of that contraption. Again, I'd want to have a very clear understanding of where I wanted to go -- on the level, along the hillside. Then I could work along digging down while moving the soil on the uphill about 5 feet over to build a ridge. The furrow, the width of the shovel, may need to be deepened, some of the soil from the next furrow may also need to be moved to the ridge. I'd work from uphill to the ridge, building it slightly above the level of the bottom of the first furrow.
The width of 3 shoveled furrows across should be more than enuf for a bed that one could reach across. A ridge of 2 shovel widths on the downhill side should be adequate for a permanent path. Then, I'd move another step up the slope. Terracing.
Steve
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