Actually, the biggest issue (I discovered the morning after the first heavy rain washed away a portion of the yards of topsoil I had hand shoveled the day before) with landscaping on slopes is drainage. I’ve now got over 60 feet of seepage drainage pipe throughout this project to assure that I don’t wake to find Grand Canyon-sized abysses snaking through the plantings. Even with this, there is going to be an area that will always be damp. Did anyone say bog plants? A cedar walkway will hopefully keep the tootsies dry while working or contemplating out there.

The other long- standing issue in our backyard was access. The slope was so forbidding and steep that until the ponds, the only reason to go down there was to get bitten by ticks, chiggers and mosquitoes when mowing the weeds once a month in the growing season. The ponds were the incentive to build a set of steps down the bank. By the way, these timbers, and the bridge timbers before them, are heavy and unsuitable for dropping on the feet. Just a word of warning from the unwise. I played Walter Brennan on not one but two separate occasions. At least I didn’t favor one foot. Equal opportunity bruising in this establishment. 7/19/01: I ended up having to add a step at the bottom. Otherwise the last riser would have been over 12 inches after the landing below the steps was actually leveled. Now for the hypertufa style concrete stepping stone landing.......

I’m told that I should put up a railing. Another project in the making.....