What edible (fruit or veggie) can I grow on this hill?

General Gardening
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(SEE PHOTO BELOW) I guess this is a landscape design questions.

See this ivy-covered hill above the raised bed? It’s south-west facing and gets about 3-5 hours of sun a day. How can I put it to use? I would like to grow more edible plants. I’m a little stumped because it’s a hill (not flat). Should I terrace it? If so, do you know of a DIY retaining wall I can build myself? Or should I put a fruit tree(s) on it? I also want to plant a row of blackberries, but if I place the row parallel to the raised bed, the south facing end will be higher than the north facing end (because of the slope). All ideas welcome!

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If you are interested in a permaculture approach, mine would be helpful. First, do you have a way to mulch in the current vegetation? My suggestion would be to rototill in the ivy or, if you don’t have access to that, start with the next step. Edit: Set your lawnmower as low as possible and get the ivy cut mulched into the soil as much as possible, or weedwhack it down as low as possible. Start saving cardboard boxes and placing them on top of the existing ground as a light barrier to kill back the existing vegetation. Next, you’ll want other layers of organic material which will depend on the plants you intend to grow. For my beds, I did cardboard >composted horse manure>thin layer of wood mulch on top. This was free for me. If you have access to straw or hay, or composted leaves from your local municipality, or know a farmer with chicken manure etc, go with what you can source. Maybe contact all of your local landscaping companies and get some free shredded woodchips from them.

Once you have your layer of mulch to kill off all the current vegetation, it will start to turn that vegetation into a further organic soil layer. If you do a good job with the cardboard and thick enough mulch, you should have very minimal weeds popping through.

At that point you can start planting stuff. If you have access to FRESHLY MADE hardwood chips (maple, oak, etc) you can consider wine cap mushroom mycelium which will create a free edible crop for you for years to come if you continue to feed it new FRESH woodchips every year for the mushrooms to munch on and break down.
If you want fruits, you can integrate them with the mushrooms. I’m not sure on light requirements but as you are in zone 10 you have many options different from me. I’m growing honeyberries, gooseberries, currants, blueberries, strawberries, jostaberries, and huckleberries but I am not sure which would work in zone 10. Definitely avoid honeyberries. I’m sure there are many warmer climate dwarf citrus trees, fejoias, bananas, pomegranates, etc you would be able to grow! It all depends on your preferences. You might be able to do strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) or Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium). I know they like it too warm for me in zone 6.

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It doesn’t look steep to me what is the grade? You can plant whatever you want in it. Not sure what type of ivy but that might be hard to eradicate. I would focus on fruit trees where you can work on controlling the ivy just around the trees. Zone 10 so many choices unless it’s a zone 10 without heat like San Francisco. Mangos if you have heat.

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South West facing, means the sun it does get is going to be the Hotter more intense sunlight.

Ginseng here in TN only grows on North to North east facing hillsides (in normal hillside grade locations)… well because the others get too much hot sun.

Ginseng will grow on a hillside that faces near due east, if it is extremely steep (bottom of a river bluff) because that location only gets morning sun (cooler less intense sun).

Some plants are very sensitive to the type of sunshine a location gets.

If your hillside there actually gets 5 hours of south/west sunshine I would think that most plants that call for full sun would probably do OK there. It is going to be 5 hours of intense sunshine.

It it is only 3 hours… probably not such a good place for full sun plant to be.

I have some wild patches of blackberries in my field, and along my roadway that are in locations where they only get evening sun, and they do well, produce plenty of fruit. I have some on the other side too, that get mostly morning sun and they do a little better. both sides probably get around 5 hours daily.

Blackberry is one of my most dependable fruits… I don’t recall a complete fruit failure ever and I am near 60 yo (in the wild ones)…

I have a nice patch of illini blackberry that I started in 2003 and they have produced nice crops every year since 2004. Fruit on 2nd year canes.

They are succeptable to double blossom, and I have some of that, but they still produce lots of berries.

I started a patch of Ouachita last year in another location, just in case the double blossom ever takes out my ilinni. Expecting to get a nice crop off of them this year.

Blackberries will grow on flats, or hillsides, they don’t care about that. At least the wild ones sure don’t care, anywhere around here that the trees are cleared, the blackberries soon show up and do well.

Good Luck !

TNHunter

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Below is a pic of my ilinni blackberries…

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When I was considering planting tame blackberries, I had heard that some of them did not taste at all like wild blackberries and some did not taste good at all (that was back in the early 2000’s)… and per Stark these taste like wild… that was the main reason I bought them. They do taste much like wild, but sweeter, and much larger.

I hope the Ouachita taste as good. We’ll see this summer.

TNHunter

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I have far steeper hills and just planted straight up on them.

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I agree with the others that your hillside is not that steep. You should be able to till or dig and make yourself a slightly raised bed there if you want. When there are tough weeds involved, I like to break it up and amend if needed the summer before you plant it… my own compost and black kow, and peat (garden magic peat), are some of my fav amendments… if your soil is good don’t bother, if poor you might add some… work it in good… and as long as you do it the summer before planting… after you get it worked up, you can simply cover it (ruth stout) like with hay, deep hay… and let that sit on it all summer, fall, winter… and in the winter months, put on more hay, another deep layer…

Come spring, those weeds will be no more… and you will have a nice raised bed with composting in place happening. Just plant what ever you want to plant thru that hay into the rich dirt underneath. There will be a nice layer of compost over the entire bed.

I made a bed a couple years ago like that was 90 ft long, 4 ft wide and planted it last spring and everything I put in there grew like crazy. 8 fruit trees, berry bushes goumi, black berry, raspberry, strawberry… I even slipped some peppers, dill and a Charleston grey watermelon vine. only 1 watermelon vine survived our late frost and we got 9 nice melons off it.

I have never had to deal with any ivy but a thick covering of hay for 8-10 months will take care of most tough weeds. Apply more as needed.

Now below is some hillside planting that I have done plenty of…

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TNHunter

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I grew Ouachita and they made the best tasting blackberry jam (to me anyway). But they were not as good ‘fresh’ eating until they became dull and no longer shiney like those in your picture. When they become dull, the sugar in the berry is now there.

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mrsg47… thanks for the taste report on the Ouachita.

I think just about all blackberries are like that… got to wait for full ripeness, to get good sweetness.

When they go from black, shiny and firm… to black, dull and softer… and pull off easy… they are ready.

TNHunter

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Black raspberries would be another option. They do not require a lot of sun. Mine do not get a lot of sun and are doing very well for the past 20 years with no problem.

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I have blackberries and raspberries in near total shade and they manage to crop and spread. You could fill that entire hill with them fairly cheap. $10 a piece at Lowes. Without doing any work to the hill.

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@MikeC @Robert Really? Do blackberries really produce in part shade? What would I do – plant a row that runs parallel to the raised beds but up on the hill? I guess I can do that. On a separate note, I can rip out the ivy. It’s a pain, but I’ve done it before elsewhere so I know what’s involved.

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Assuming the other side of the fence is somebody else’s yard, you may not want to do the raspberries, since they won’t stop spreading when they get to the fence.

Blackberries, or black raspberries may not as long as you keep them from touching the ground right at the fence bottom. They easily tip root. That’s how they make a velcro-loop like bramble.

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My blackberries produced like crazy in partial shade. They loved it.

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Here is a pic of my — what I call my food forest bed. Created as described earlier…raised bed 90’ long, on the end it trails off a small hill some. The view in the pic excludes the down hill end, starts with a new peach.

In order from the bottom of the hill to the other end… here is what all I planted in it.

Che, Ouachita Blackberry, Rising Star Peach (first thing you see there), heritage and fall gold raspberries, Akane apple, red gem goumi, hudson golden gem apple, sweet scarlet goumi, gold rush apple, moorpark apricot, then on the far end, ga-866 and shanz li jujube. Also all along the top of that bed in between other things I planted strawberries, peppers, dill weed, etc, etc…

So… I would recommend you just fix you up a nice planting place there… and put what ever you want in it. Blackberries and Raspberries… for sure.

But if it does get 5 hours of good sun, a lot of stuff may do well there.

TNHunter

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Gorgeous!

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So if I plant a bunch of blackberries on the hillside, do I have to worry about suckers getting into the veggie raised beds below?

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I don’t think blackberries sucker away from the root crown. They do tip root, when the canes arch over and the tip comes back to touch the soil.

So if you plant them and walk away, they will spread everywhere. But if you are training and/or pruning them a few times a season, you should be able to keep them in check.

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I think some blackberry varieties will sucker… spread by root out away from the crown… but some do not.

I have had ilinni since 2003 and no problems with that at all on them. I have Ouachita (planted last spring) and nothing came up except for the expected primocanes near the crown.

I planted those Heritage (Red) raspberries and Fall Gold… last spring… and they both sent up several new plant, a good way out from the crown. I am going to give most of those to my daughter this spring.

TNHunter

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I would get rid of the ivy and make room for the black raspberries. IMO

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