Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my keyboard ... gorgeous house and I am more than envious of your tropicals.

I'm thinking you gonna need some hefty retaining walls but man-o-man is it going be gorgeous!

Sorry, no help from me but had to comment :^)

yeah me too, I told my hubby we need to do something about it so he put pine trees to help hold it together. would like something more colorful but so far just a snowball bush and some rose of sharon, tiger lillies and hostas. any ideas

Thanks jeanner!

There is some retaining walls to the right 2/3s and the left 1/3--in front of the house, but I would still need about 15 mts of additional wall up the second lot and to the entranceway. With all that cement and steal I could build a really nice pool--and a pool sounds so much nicer than a retaining wall for some reason.

So...I'm going to try to do it as natural as possible, with some bamboos, running and clumping and some ornamental grasses. My two biggest concerns are creating a path walkway halfway down the hill that crosses it so that I have easier access, also an irrigation plan.

When I finished the house the contractor told me (of course) I had to keep building retaining wall along the front and all up the entrance. Interestingly enough I didn't, there has been some erosion of course, but we can actually pick and shovel it ourselves and even it out. Planting the right things in the right places seems to help hold things together.

Someday a retaining wall would be nice of course, but for now I'm keeping it simple and rustic. Luckily here no one can tell you how to maintain your property (pretty much) or what you can and can't plant (never an issue).

pura vida

Here is a link that might be useful: garden photo blog

I was looking at a soil erosion site and they are not sure sometimes what keeps a hill together. They said healthly soil and plants can work just as well as retaining walls.
Lovelycherry

We are looking at a very similar project. How is yours going? Do you have any recent pics? Any advice you would like to pass along? My email address is alison@wvi.com

THANK YOU!!

-Alison

Wow, I'd forgotten I'd posted this...

Right now it's the dry season so everything is dry, will wait a few more months and then take some new pictures.

As always taking the natural (and cheap) approach.

We cut terraces into the hill ourselves--just shoveling, wasn't that hard really--cutting into a hill the dirt falls down and you can kind of trample it down by walking on it. It was fun actually, very easy to go along with the contour of the land, very natural feeling. Imagined what it must have been like for Incas when they built Machu Picchu.

Between the terraces we planted stuff, all sorts of stuff. It's a very exposed site, so basically just see what would do well there.

Plan to plant more in May as that's the start of the rainy season here--getting some clumping bamboos ready to move now, (they can be dug, then set back into place for 1-2 months) Then just pulled out and planted in the new spot (the slope).

all for now...

Here is a link that might be useful: tropical garden photo blog