This is a question that I get all of the time on epic gardening not only just because

I talk about growing in raised beds a lot but because of course we sell the birdies

raised beds and a lot of people are wondering how do you place a raised bed on a surface

that isn't perfectly level like a slope.

So does a raised bed have to be level?

No, it doesn't, I mean plants grow in nature on slopes all of the time but things will

be a lot easier if you do it this way because it's a level vegetable bed, water won't run

in one direction, you won't have a distribution of soil moisture that's uneven.

So having a level bed is great but how do you then work it into a slope?

So the ways to approach it, if it's a steep slope it can seem pretty daunting to get

everything set in motion, water of course will flow downhill, it will carry dirt and debris,

you'll have erosion that could be a concern so you want to reinforce.

The best way to reinforce is to build a retaining wall or reinforcing fencing to hold back

the hillside so of course don't do this in the rain but you need to carve out a side

of the hill to make it level, you got to put the raised bed in that location, leave

enough room for the raised bed and the wall and then you sort of additional room and then

you want to remove, I mean the thing is with this you have to remove a decent amount

of soil because you're cutting level into the slope so that is one way to do it.

Then you put a retaining wall on the portion that you cut, right?

So you're cutting, you need to cut at least enough space to house the raised bed and the

wall as well as everything you know walking around the bed is going to be pretty important.

So a concrete retaining wall, 24 to 20, it's just a big project is all I'm trying to say.

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