![]() Alternatively, outline the desired space for a raised planting berm with stakes or flags. To see what an A-frame level looks like and how to use it, see the video in my article How to Construct a Swale.Ģ: Build a raised bed or outline a berm along the contour line.Ĭonstruct raised beds along a contour line at your desired length and width. Stakes or flags are handy for this.Īn A-frame level is a simple, handmade tool that can help you identify elevation contour lines. How to Create a Contour Garden in 4 Steps 1: Mark the elevation contour lines.įirst, mark the elevation contour lines in the area where you intend to place your garden. Would you like to grow food in your front yard without sacrificing curb appeal? Check out my mini guide, The Permaculture Inspired Edible Landscape. See: 12 perennial crops for wet soil.Ĭontour gardens create microclimates of sun and shade, creating diverse growing areas, and improving soil ecology and rainwater infiltration. You might consider digging swale trenches in the pathways for even more water retention, depending upon the degree of the slope.įor areas that collect water, a raised planting berm along the contour offers an elevated gardening solution for plants that don’t do well in waterlogged soil. Try lining them with a stone or rock border, which looks attractive while reducing erosion and retaining moisture. Garden berms built along the contour can hold vegetables, perennial fruits, or other crops. Using the Land’s Topography in the Home Garden ![]() Let’s take a look at how contour gardening can be used on a small scale. This technique of farming the contour lines can be used for both annual and perennial crops.įor gardeners with less-than-ideal areas, the idea of contour farming has been adapted to the backyard scale. In this way, water and nutrients can more easily infiltrate the soil, minimizing irrigation and fertilization needs. When planted along the natural curve of the land, gullies and soil erosion are reduced. An inappropriate use of farming techniques the world over has caused an increase in soil erosion and an astounding loss of soil fertility.Ĭontour farming is a cultivation technique that, when used on gently sloping lands, can mitigate erosion and maximize the absorption of rain and nutrients before they rush down the slope.įor this technique, crops are planted across a slope following the natural elevation contour lines, rather than up and down the hill. ![]() Unfortunately, growing practices like tilling-which were appropriate on flat lands-have been transferred to the slopes. As population densities increase around the world, however, global agriculture is being pushed from the flat prairie lands to less-than-ideal, sloping terrain. Gravity, after all, can turn a lovely hillside into a grueling challenge. ![]() The Roots of Contour Gardening: Contour FarmingĪs long as agriculture has been around, farming flat land has been the ideal landscape. ![]() Here’s what contour gardening is and how you can pull it off. It’s a popular tool in permaculture gardens. Contour gardening is a way to use the land’s contours to reduce irrigation and erosion, and maximize nutrients for abundant harvest yields. ![]()
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