Our garden has a north-facing slope, which means, because I live in the
northern hemisphere, it slopes away from the sun. The ground I'm standing on now
on the north side of the garden is about a foot lower than the ground where the
camera tripod is standing on the south side. This isn't a very steep slope, but
it does have some disadvantages, especially considering our relatively
short growing season and limited sunlight. Today I'll talk about the
disadvantages of our north facing slope and what I've done to compensate for it.
Because our garden slopes away from the sun, sunlight hits our garden at a lower
angle than it hits flatland. As a result, our soil thaws slower in the spring,
freezes faster in winter, and objects to the south cast longer shadows, resulting
in more shade. These factors combine to effectively shorten our growing season
and limit growth throughout the year. To counteract the north-facing slope, I did
something very simple. I built raised beds that slope slightly
toward the south - just one or two degrees. So, while the rest of our garden slopes
away from the sun our raised beds slope toward the sun. For small beds like this,
I built the beds to the same depth all the way around but buried the south side
more than the north side to achieve the desired slope. But for larger beds I use
shallower boards on the south side and cut the side boards to match the contour
of the ground to achieve the desired slope without having to bury the south
side of the bed too much. Please see this link for more details on how I did this.
Because these beds tilt a little bit toward the sun, their soil will thaw
earlier in the spring and freeze later in winter, thereby extending our growing
season just a bit. And because the back of the bed is higher than the front, the
plants in front will cast less of a shadow on the plants in the back. With
the exception of the hoop house, I not only sloped each bed toward the sun; the
garden beds get progressively higher as you go to the back of the yard. Again,
reducing the shade cast by plants in beds to the south. Now let's take a look
at how I'm experimenting with steeper south-facing slopes in the winter garden.
I decided not to go too nuts with the slopes in the rest of the garden out of
concern for erosion ,but the winter garden is covered during the winter, so
erosion should be less of an issue. Here's a little bed that I just built
and planted with spinach. It slants about five degrees to the south.
According to Elliot Coleman, who's my biggest inspiration when it comes to
season extension, land in the northern hemisphere at a latitude of 43 degrees,
which is where he lives, and a 5 degree slope towards the south, has the same
solar climate as land 300 miles to the south of it. In other words, where Elliot
lives in Maine, the sun hits a five degree south-facing slope at the
same angle it hits flatland 300 miles to the south.
I don't live as far north as Eliot. I think the effect would be less here, but
if I can move the solar climate of this little bed a couple hundred miles to the
south, I'm going to do it. And this 5 degree slope toward the Sun should help
this spinach survive the winter under cover. Now let's take a look at an even
steeper slope I'm experimenting with in the hoop house. Okay, this is going to be a
little bit difficult to film with this volunteer squash in the way, but I
modified the bed underneath this cold frame to slope toward the sun 14 degrees.
Even with this steep of a slope, erosion shouldn't be too big of an issue here
because this bed is at least partially covered year-round. I'm hoping this slope
gives me a solar climate here in the cold frame roughly equivalent to
flatland it's about 600 to 900 miles to the south of here. This should improve
the survivability of the plants I'll be planting here in October for the winter
garden. if this experiment with slope here in this cold frame works as I
expect it will, I'll be modifying more of our beds here in
the hoop house in the future to slant towards the sun. So, by sloping our garden
beds slightly to the south and building the beds higher and higher as we move
toward the back of the yard, which is the north side, our plants cast less shade
and our soil thaws earlier in the spring and freezes later in winter, giving us a
longer growing season. I hope this video gave you some ideas on how you can use
slope to your advantage in your garden. if you found this video helpful, please
give it a thumbs up. And if you haven't already, please subscribe for more videos
on how to grow a lot of food on a little Inn without spending much or working
harder than you have to.
good boy