More Space For Your Market Garden, Farming on Sloped Land (YouTube)
Finally Grow All You Want on Steep Sloping Land
Are you a vegetable garden on sloped ground? Do you want more space for your market garden? Or even to start farming on sloped land? You can increase growing space with this one simple approach.
The method works for your market garden or organic row cropping. It increases growing space by multiplying it. Level-growing spaces are easier to manage, even when farming on hill slopes.
Permanent raised beds have their place. Double-reach beds on slopes break up the run of a hill. The raised bed is great for handwork when beds aren't that long. But when you are working with 120-foot-long rows, things get complicated.
Terrace farming on hill slopes is the answer. Long, deep, level growing spaces are the most flexible, but they require equipment and an understanding of garden terrace design. There are compaction issues, soil type, level, contour, and equipment operations.
With a wide-level terrace, the BCS tractor works more efficiently. I’m not tossed around like a rag doll on uneven ground. Best of all, using earthworks raises the elevation downslope. Flail mowing can be done at a lower level, speeding up planting cycles.
Do You Need Much Land For Terrace Farming on Steep Slopes?
Small terraces make gardening in sloped areas easy. Similarly, installing small bunds helps retain soil and moisture in market gardens. The same concepts apply to organic farming on steeply sloping land.
I get more square feet for growing. A more level space to grow is easier to work in, even when gardening on slopes. Design is important. Terrace bunds are level on contour.
The shelf must be twice the rise. That means if you go up four feet, the minimum level self must be eight feet. And the top of an earthwork isn't level. It slopes back on a four percent grade.
Where the base of the vertical rise is on a contour horizontally, adjustments can be made for high average rainfall, vehicle access, or different soil types. There is math involved.
These earth structures slow and spread the water. They provide vegetative strips for beneficial insects and growing mulch. Terrace farming is a wonderful use of sloping land.
Earthwork terraces are excellent for erosion control on steep slopes. While bunds are compact, this is not about holding water in ponds or catchments.
The right design will slowly move water across slopes for proper drainage and stability.
