We recently purchased a home that has a fairly steep hillside in the back. I haven’t measured the grade but I’d say it’s somewhere between 35-45 degrees. You can walk it fairly easily.
My question for folks here is pretty broad. I don’t know what I don’t know. I’ll explain the situation and post some pics. Do y’all think I have an urgent problem? Erosion? Stabilization? something else?
Here’s my situation:
- Southern California
- Two structures are located at the top of the grade. The slabs are being undermined by erosion and rodents.
- I knocked down this whole hillside with a weed wacker this past spring as it was overgrown with mustard (required by fire dept.). This will likely be an annual chore unless I can somehow prevent the weed growth.
- The soil is very sandy. I haven’t tested it for its exact make up but I’d guess it’s mostly sand and hardly any organic material.
- The squirrels have gone nuts with their burrows all throughout the hillside. In some sections, as your walking along the hillside, you’ll cave in some of their tunnels and the sand just sucks into it etc. I think (hope!) I have the ground squirrel problem under control. For now.
- We have 3 fruit trees at the top of the grade. It looks like I’m the past, the previous owner had 3 more.
- There’s a drainage running perpendicular to the slope (you can see in the last picture) that is full of dirt… indicating a slow(?) erosion.
My first inclination is to improve the structure of the soil. I was thinking of putting down an inch or so of compost around the three fruit trees and then layering on a few inches of mulch. My hope is that over time, it will improve the integrity of the soil and also improve the fertility for the trees and future growth. Will this work on a steep grade though? Or will things just settle at the bottom?
Next, I’d like to get some native ground cover and plants growing further down. Still trying to figure out the best plants for this.
Am I on the right track? Any other ideas? Sorry, I know that this was a bit of a random rambling. I appreciate the help in advance!
