My husband and I have a new construction home with a long bank running along the side of our property. The darned thing is about 100 feet long, anywhere from 4 to 15 feet high, and the grade must be about 45 degrees.

Luckily we live in an area (Pennsylvania) with heavy clay soil and lots of rocks, which means structural integrity is not much of an issue. But erosion is. We are planting a mix of small trees (redbud, serviceberry), shrubs (mostly natives), clumping grasses (little bluestem), groundcover, and a few perennials. However, until things grow up we will have more bare ground than we would like.

We are half-burying some large rocks in the spots that get the worst run-off. While I would love to have the whole thing terraced, it is way outside our budget to do so. But I was wondering if it would be possible to build a few mini-plateaus (almost like giant steps) in some of the areas that are getting chewed up the worst? We could use retaining wall blocks to build small two-and-a-half foot square plateaus, similar to the plateaus we made to plant the trees and shrubs. This would (hopefully) slow some of the water and also give us level places to stand on, because as it is now getting to the plants to examine them and weed around them is an exercise in agility. With no good footholds, I am afraid one of us will take a tumble.

We are complete amateurs at this. Anyone know if this might work? Or would the terraces just wash away? Or would it be better to trench out a dry stream bed, line it with rocks, and divert most of the water to that?

Or perhaps a combination of the two ideas?