HelpfulGardener.com

For everyone there is a challenge. I am facing mine right now. It comes in the shape of a large wooded hillside that leads up to my yard.

It all began about 1 1/2 years ago when I decided I wanted to live in the country surrounded by woods. Being the bargin shopper I am I convinced a builder that his back lot would be worthless and that he should just sell it to me. It has about an acre and a half cleard where my yard is suppose to be growingand my house. The front edge of the yard and left side drop of in a 50 degree slope about 30 yards to a flat area. All of it is wooded and contains revines.

Now that the picture is painted I need ideas of what the best and cheapest way to landscape it would be. I am currently removing dead trees and under brush on the flat area next to the spring and creek. Any helpful advise would be greatly appriciated.

The back half of my little city lot is a steep wooded hillside. Smaller and steeper than yours. Here's some pictures of what I have been doing with it:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=152397&highlight=hillside#152397

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=142344&highlight=hillside#142344

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=127116&highlight=hillside#127116

Main points about it -- I just started at the top and have been slowly working my way down, adding retaining walls as I go, to keep everything from washing away. I am planting all with native trees, shrubs, wildflowers. Since I don't have a whole bunch of money for landscaping, what works for me is that I do one section a season. That means the stuff I planted seasons ago is spreading. So instead of buying more (well I do some of that also ), I just keep dividing the stuff I planted earlier seasons and spreading it around more and more of the hillside. So once I got started, nature is providing the landscaping, except the trees which I keep adding. I've planted two dozen or so trees there so far.

Rainbow your hillside is looking great hopefully soon I will have pics to show also. I like your idea about sections. I never thought of it. So today I started clearing fallen trees out. I just realized how much branches and logs I have. I was amazed that it looked so little but soon I had about 7 or 8 stacks of logs ranging from 10 - 15 in each. That is not to include the under brush.

Once I get the first section cleared it should be time to plant (fall).

Plant it with natural native plants that grow in the shade. As it is steep make a stair way down to the creek.