Planting a Hillside Garden
If you live in an area where there are a few gently sloping hills, these can make great areas for a garden. Log or wood steps can be installed either in the center of the hill or off to the side if desired, with sections marked out for planting flowers and shrubs in the garden. One of the benefits of having a garden positioned on a sloped area is that you never have to worry about the ground being too moist around the plants, for it simply rolls downhill. This is especially beneficial during the rainy season. Designing a hillside garden is easy and can also include any kind of decorations, such as pretty rocks, driftwood, garden statuary, and seashells.
First look at the hill you want to plan your garden on. If there is grass growing there, the grass can be removed, or a portion of it can be left for a natural look around the shrubs and flowering bushes. The soil should be of good quality although that can also be altered to encourage the maximum blossoming potential of the flowers you choose to plant there. It is probably easier to grow young plants rather than seeds directly sown into the hill as the seeds can easily be washed away whenever they get watered. You can still purchase flower seeds, but start them indoors until they have germinated into small plants. Then they can be replanted outside on the hill.
Decide what flowers you want to grow. You can mix annuals with perennials, with the bulbs set firmly into the soil. Flowering bushes can be placed near the top of the hill, with the smaller plants set randomly across the remaining area. If log or wood steps are not desirable, large flat stones can be set in place to form steps to make it easier to walk up and down the slope.
To keep the bushes from facing too far downwards on the hill, lean them up against the hill at a slight angle before packing the soil around them. Small rocks can also circle the bushes to provide some extra support if needed. Other flowers can also be positioned in the same manner, especially taller growing ones like cosmos, asters, and daisies. After planting the flowers, water them well.
Garden furniture can also be added to the hillside garden, but placed at the bottom, or the top, if there is enough room. A small bench or chair with a table big enough for a picnic lunch
is ideal. Experiment with the placement of statuary and large shells or coral chunks in several areas on the hill. Your hillside garden is complete!
Image Credit: Ferahgo the Assassin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
