When designing a vegetable garden, one of the first things you’ll want to figure out is which part of your yard gets the most sunlight. This may require a little observation, a lawn chair, and perhaps a refreshing beverage. If anyone asks, you’re not relaxing—you’re conducting important agricultural research.

Of course, Mother Nature doesn’t always make things easy. Sometimes the sunniest spot in the yard happens to be a driveway, a patch of concrete, or a section of ground that seems determined to challenge every gardening plan you’ve ever made. And quite often, that perfect sunny location is on a hillside or a slope. Fortunately, gardeners are a resourceful bunch, and that’s where hillside planter boxes and terraced beds come to the rescue.

I know this challenge well because my current garden sits on a slope. When we built our raised beds, I knew the yard wasn’t perfectly level. What I didn’t realize was just how enthusiastically un-level it was. At the front of the garden, the raised beds stand nearly two feet tall. By the time you make your way to the back, they’re barely six inches above the ground. It’s less of a gentle incline and more of a gradual lesson in topography. Thankfully, with a little planning and the right design, even a sloped yard can become a productive and beautiful place to grow vegetables.

Depending on your yard size you may wish to make full-size garden beds, but you can also take advantage of a sunny hillside/slope by making some smaller built-in hillside planter boxes. I like planter boxes because they are very easy to access from all sides, and all you need is wood and nails to build them.

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Generally speaking, there are two methods to create built-in hillside planter boxes. The first involves leveling out the land and plopping a pre-made box on it, and the second involves cutting your wood and materials to align with the slope. I think both methods work great and it really just depends on your skillset, the size of your hillside planter boxes, and how much money you want to spend on soil, wood, and materials.

Method one: level up!

This method involves digging into the slope and leveling out a section by removing soil. This is a good method to use if you plan on buying and using prefabricated planter boxes, because you will need the ground to be level.

1. Dig the outline of your garden bed into the sloped land. In this method, the lowest point in your outline will be the depth you’ll need to match for the whole footprint of your hillside planter boxes. A hand fork comes in handy here for the detailed leveling.

2. Once you’ve leveled out your land, build, and/or assemble your planter boxes and place them in the level footprint. Voila!

Method two: build planter boxes to fit the slope

This method takes on building a sloped raised bed frame using cut wood to match the angle of the hillside. Note: In this method, you’ll likely need to use more soil to fill your hillside planter boxes. This could be an added cost if you are buying your soil.

Also, don’t use pre-treated wood or old railway ties, which can be toxic. Untreated wood is a must, and cedar is your best choice because it’s rot-resistant. If you don’t trust the wood you’re using because you’re using scraps, I’d suggest a garden liner.

1. Figure out your dimensions. For a full-sized garden bed, I love making the dimensions 8’x4’ since most wood types come in eight-foot lengths. But for a hillside planter box, I like to scale it down a bit to no bigger than 4’x4’ and stack them next to each other so they’re more maneuverable. That is, unless you’re growing something big like pumpkins or squash. In that case, give them the room and build some 8-footers.
2. Eyeball it. Set it up where you want it, and how you want it once it’s finished. You can try to stack 2×4’s on top of one another to accommodate the slope, but when you’re in this phase, you can just use wood scraps, shims, or cardboard to make it level for the time being.
3. Measure. Look at the height you had to mock-up to make the bed level, and make sure you have enough wood to build the box to accommodate the slope. If the ground is weird and uneven, or the slope is particularly steep, you can also build legs instead.
4. Build. Now that you know where you want it, and how much wood you’ll need to make it level, get building! Two nails in each end corner should do the trick, and you can use wood scraps to fill in any gaps.

These two methods are just jumping-off points. So much of building hillside planter boxes or garden beds is customizable. You can raise the beds even taller if you want. And you can outfit these planter boxes with cold frames in the autumn and winter months to extend your growing seasons. Once your hillside planter boxes are in place, it’s time to plant your herbs and vegetables and keep those weeds out!

Have you ever built hillside planter boxes or garden beds in a sloped yard? What method did you use? Share your ideas and advice in the comments!

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