Most of my land is on a valley hillside with anywhere from 30 to 45 degree inclines. This makes going most places on the property a workout - and especially difficult with a fully loaded lawn tractor.
In the picture above - just above and to the right of the tractor - is the location of a soon to be garden terrace. A flattened out area of the hillside for a new garden. On the downhill side of the garden will be a field rock retention wall to keep the flattened garden terrace from slowly eroding or sliding down the hill with a heavy rain. I do have a large field row rock collection for the retention walls, but it is located along the forest. The current path along the hillside from the field row rock collection to the garden terrace site is too rough for the lawn tractor and fully loaded wagon to creep along.
In the picture above you can see that the wagon barely made it past the hot tub before buckling and spinning out the tractor tires on the rough hillside. Although the wagon buckling had more to do with rock placement in the wagon, the tractor just couldn't get a grip on the ground to power drag the wagon the rest of the way up the hillside. This tough little wagon had been through a decade of daycare before I purchased it - the wagon just keeps given'er.
Excess Dirt Removal with Tarp and Gravel Screen.
There use to be a small raised garden bed that stretched onto an a small section of the new path. The wood frame had already been removed, but I wanted to set aside the quality top soil for the garden beds. I decided to shovel the quality garden dirt onto a tarp - to tuck away until the garden terrace was ready to be topped with it. I set up a gravel screen on top of the tarp to shovel the garden dirt onto - screening out the rocks now while I'm shoveling the dirt already will save me from having to spend the energy to rake and remove the rocks later.
Gravel Screen
The Gravel Screen is a simple design and construction. The inside of a piece of plywood is cut out so the remaining plywood looks like a picture frame. A sturdy metal screen with desired size holes is cut and laid on the plywood frame. Four 2x4s or other appropriate size lumber pieces are then laid on top of the screen on the plywood frame and screwed into place - sandwiching the screen between the plywood frame and 2x4 lumber.
In the picture above you can see how the screen is leaned on the wagon so there is room for the dirt to drop down onto the tarp. Watch the video below to see the gravel screen in action.
Tractor Path Construction
In the picture below you can see where I have outlined the path that I would like the tractor to follow. You can also see how the tarp with the top soil has been folded and pulled over - out of the way of the new path.
Flattening the Path with a Pickaxe
A Pickaxe and Garden Rake would make a great combination for path construction and leveling. For this rough cut path I'm going to focus on the use pickaxe. When turned sideways it is useful for moving the dirt around - just like the back of a garden rake. The pickaxe is a necessity for doing any digging into this clay and rock filled ground. A pickaxe also makes quick work of path-intruding tree roots.
Below is the video of the tractor path construction. You will see the small row of rocks on the downhill side of the path. The ground is moved from the uphill side of the path - down to the downhill side of the path with the small row of rocks that act as a backstop - a small retention wall - to keep the path dirt from sliding down the hill with a heavy rain. Soon enough the clay dirt will harden in place. I make the path surface as flat as possible. Breaking up the higher spots and moving them to the divots, low spots, and downhill side of the path. I don't want the path perfectly level. I want the path to have a slight downhill tilt - so that rain water doesn't collect and make it a slippery mud path. After the tractor path is flattened sufficiently, I drive back and forth over it with the lawn tractor to pack it down. Then a few more path adjustments are made when new divots and low spots are revealed.
After Path Construction
Field Rock Harvest and Haul
Now that the tractor path to the soon to be garden terrace location is sufficient, the fun of hauling the field row rocks begin. In a farmers field, the ground freezing and thawing from the winter tends to heave rocks to the surface. This can be a problem for crops, tractors, and tractor farming implements - the rocks can cause damage. My dad was telling me about what they used to do for fun on Friday nights in the spring. My mom and him would get together with the farmer neighbor and his wife. They would meet up in the farm fields. Set the tractor with the flatbed on idle so it would slowly creep down the field rows. They would follow behind - loading it with recently surfaced field rocks. I forgot to ask him what the fun part was, it must have been the conversations.
In the picture above you can see some of my field row rock collection. This rock pile stretches along the forest edge - all the way up the valley hill. This land used to be farm fields all the way up to the forest where they would pile the harvested field row rocks. Ready for me to harvest and haul on the new path to use to build retaining walls for the soon to be garden terrace.
Field Rock Row Harvesting and the Haul on the new Path
In the video below we venture into the forest with the tractor and little wagon. To conserve energy I toss and roll the rocks down the hill to the wagon for loading. With this wagon design I found there was much less front wheel buckling when I would load the heavier field rocks towards the stronger single-shaft back axle of the wagon.
In the picture below you can see the fully loaded and non buckled wagon that made it all the way up the new tractor path with ease.
The garden terrace will be just in time - this is the last week of spring before planting outside begins.
Have a great day!
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Fizzling fireboxes @thesteemengine - that's awesome! Thanks so much :)
What a great discription. I like your field rocks, but I can't believe you have that plastic waggon!!! It must have served you well while you had it.
I can see a bit of the property in one of the photos with grass under the trees in the background. Are those fruit trees? Looks beautifull by the way
Ps: I'll show you our property one day, I know all about exercise too!
Thanks - there are some crab apple trees on the property line, we do have a small orchard on the other side of the of the property 9 trees or so, a few years old and neglected (we've been here 10 months) - we're putting some work into them, my wife with the spraying and pruning recently. I'll be doing some soil and drainage work - Pear, plumb, and apple trees, each has different variety branches on them .. Like one one apple tree grows five varieties of apples, same with the rest .. i'll post about the little orchard sometime soon :)
Yes very cool! I saw the photos you posted in the discord channel.
I forgot you can gref different sorts of apples to one tree! Sounds all delicious once you jave taken care of them. I'm sure I'll catch the post.
Ps: what is your wife spraying?
She said 8 cups water and 1 cup hydrogen peroxide - and spray when there will be no rain for a few days. It's supposed to get rid of fungus - that stuff on the trees that looks kind of like a dry moss.
Alright, thanks. It's good to know!
Great post -- followed, and eager to see more updates! I am starting fresh on a sloped site as well. Cheers.
Ah nice - sloped hills need work, but when you build it right the gravity can be a bonus for a self irrigation permaculture setup :)
What an informative and well documented post, such hard work getting it the way you want but well worth the hard work
Thanks - a couple hours of work, but it will save me from much more labor in the future :)
yes thats the best kind of work where it is productive
Definitely a lot of work right now, but it will pay off in the end.
Most people, I know farmers do, curse the big field stones but these were perfect for your project.
The field rocks, the clay, and the trees I've cleared will be the main building materials for many of the structures I have planned too :)