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Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/Tim Butler

This formerly vacant hill is now lush with both vegetables and flowers. Galvanized pipes secured to posts are a safety aid used to ascend or descend the steeply pitched steps linking the terraces.

If you live on a hillside, you may feel like you don’t have many gardening options. But retaining wall terraces and planters made of structural timbers, stone and masonry can create fertile planting spots that restrain erosion and provide flat surfaces for planting. By creating a series of steps that are walled on the downside slope and filled with rich garden soil, you can dramatically increase your area for growing vegetables.

Retaining walls hold soil in place, preventing erosion during periods of rain. They also allow you to add amendments to the planting soil to improve its texture or alter its acid-alkaline balance. But besides being efficient and practical, terraced hillsides are often among the most attractive and interesting vegetable gardens grown.

When planning a terraced garden on a steep slope, it’s important to recognize the substantial weight and structural forces that affect it. A gallon of rainwater weighs about 8 1/3 pounds, so unless the water can pass through weep holes or other drains, a single sustained downpour may add significant weight to the soil behind your retaining walls. In general, it’s a good idea for garden walls that are taller than 2 feet to be designed and built following the recommendations of a professional engineer.

Gentle slopes are often ideal sites for building dry-stacked, field­stone walls. In addition to giving your garden the benefit of interesting texture and adding value to your property, these walls allow water to drain easily through spaces between the stones. They step backward, leaning into the hillside, as they rise in height, granting them great stability. Many walls like these also have ample room for built-in niches and ledges suitable for containers of flowering plants or trailing vines – even statuary and fountains – to add visual appeal to your landscape.

On the other hand, terraces built on steep slopes are sometimes narrow and closely spaced. They make excellent spots for planting paired rows of beans, lettuce and peas.

No matter what the grade of your slope, a hillside terrace garden brings all of the benefits of a French intensive garden, plus the added beauty that a lush and productive vegetable garden can add to your back yard.