Landscape Ideas for Hillsides

One of the most difficult challenges of residential design is dealing with slopes and hillside landscaping. Generally when you have a lot of elevation or slope, designing a landscape around it can be absolutely beautiful because it adds interest to the space whereas a flat property is more difficult to create these unique looking landscapes. With unique and interesting designs, you will also be looking at a more costly and complicated installation due to difficult workings conditions, site access, and more material costs.  We’ve found that there are a few standard ways of working with slopes and will give you some landscape ideas for hillsides at your home below.

• View Preservation

One important factor considered when buying a hillside home is its aesthetic appeal from various viewpoints on the property. The home’s valuation is also dependent on this. As a result, preserving the view should be held as an important priority for landscape design. To do this, you must define your space and how you see the view from multiple locations are the home, inside and out. Even think about it from a neighbor’s perspective for privacy. So with that in mind, read below to get some ideas of what to do and how to do it.

• Slope Preservation

Steep slopes tend to erode over time losing some of the integrity of the subsoil, so if you have plant materials, walls, or even your home depending on the subsoil, make sure you’ve contacted a professional. In order to preserve the slope. Here’s some of the basic landscape ideas for hillsides to review:

• Raise your grade with a series of shorter terraces either through grading or retaining walls, patios, or walkways.
• Planting suitable plants that will help stabilize your slope can be both functional & beautiful, but keep in mind if you’re home has a view in the backdrop, over planting the area can in time reduce the value of the view and plant material matures.
• Adding boulders to a hillside will also help to stabilize your slope and give you some mass to accompany the size of the property and give the property some balance.
• Take advantage of the slope and build a water feature or a dry river bed that can help handle some of the water runoff
• Combining plants around some of these hardscape options softens the effect and will ensure that you not only stabilize the soil, but give interest and value to your home.

In our opinion, from a design standpoint if all you do for your hillside landscape is one of these options, it will probably not be as natural of a settings as you may want. We would recommend combining 2 or more of these landscape ideas for hillsides in order to give your property a unique, beautiful, and functional feel.

• Protect surface soils

As discussed above, water moves faster on a slope causing erosion and as a landscape designer, we look to find a solution for problems that will do so in a natural way blending with the landscape. The soil surface should be protected as much as possible from rain splatter and runoff through grading, planting, and drainage swales. Without them, your hillside will start to erode, so anything that can reduce the speed of the water runoff should be implemented to protect the soil.

• Maintenance and accessibility

Get hillside landscape designed and installed right the first time and your ongoing maintenance will be minimal. If the sloped area is planted, keeping mulch or pine needles around the plants and open hillside will reduce the soil erosion. If the hillside landscape is planting with grass, keeping it properly watered, fertilized, and yearly aerated & seeding, will ensure that as erosion occurs, you are minimizing it.  When planning a landscaping of any kind, it is of high importance to understand how you plan to use the space, what it will look like as it matures, and how you care and maintain it.

Located in Summerfield, NC Southern Exposure Landscape Management specializes in the design, installation, and maintenance of residential and commercial projects throughout the Greensboro Triad Area (High Point, Jamestown, Burlington, Reidsville, Oak Ridge, Brown Summit, Summerfield) With over 20 years in business, Southern Exposure has the experience and knowledge to solve your landscape issues and turn them into a beautiful features in the landscape. Southern Exposure is the leading landscape management firm in Greensboro, NC. See why our clients choose us. Contact us today by web (online form) or phone (336.451.4969)