How to Make a Flowerbed on a Hill

Adding a flowerbed into your hill can help prevent erosion while providing interest in your landscape design. Proper planning helps plants adapt to sloped ailments. In particular, choosing native plants with deep roots that need little upkeep will support a self-sufficient environment that enhances the ecological soundness of your landscape. If your hill is especially steep or seems unstable, hire a landscape architect or architect to evaluate it. If extensive terracing or scoring is essential, complete this step before proceeding.

Select a mix of blooms, such as perennials, annuals, plants that are slow to establish and quick colonizers. Ground covers and shrubs make especially good choices for hills. Include plenty of indigenous wildflowers if you want to draw butterflies and beneficial insects. Natives will also be the best choice where watering is a concern, for instance, in drought-prone areas. Opt for some plants with deep taproots to help stabilize the slope.

Create mini-terraces around the hill so that water can collect and saturate the origins of larger plantings, like shrubs and massive perennials. Flatten the soil with a hoe or your fingers to make level planting regions. Create ridges to guide water to soak into plant roots. These terraces are temporary, and can largely vanish once the plants have been well-established. Plant flat plants, like ground covers and little spreading blooms, directly into the hillside.

Cover the hillside completely with plantings to help preserve soil integrity. Position heat- and drought-tolerant plants with western and southern exposures. Pick eastern and northern exposures for those that need less sunlight.

Somewhat sprinkle native wildflower seeds above the hill as an alternative or involving beds. Hardy wildflowers may not need level areas to become established. Fill in gaps once they become observable by adding more seeds. Note that heavy rains may wash seeds off before they develop roots.

Water the flowerbed till the crops have been established. This may take as little as one year, or as many as three. Observe the blooms to determine how much water is needed. Deeply water little transplants using the equivalent of 1 inch of rainfall each week. Water seeds daily until the crops have been several inches tall. Note that the top of the hillside could dry more rapidly than the bottom. Prevent oversaturating blossoms at the bottom of the hill, or choose flowers that tolerate wet conditions for this region.

Mulch the hillside with mixed fir bark or vineyard mulch — these are not as likely to clean off than other mulches.

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