3. Hillside Landscaping and Quality of Life
I used to live on the side of a hill -- a steep hill. Prior to living there, I never fully appreciated the extent to which living in such an environment can impact your quality of life. Hillside landscaping presents some unique challenges, and you should take those challenges into account before buying real estate situated on a hillside.
Mind you, living atop a hill that nicely plateaus where the house stands puts you in an enviable position. Nor does real estate on a gentle slope pose much of a landscaping challenge. Property on hills (including steep hills) can also be beautiful: there's no denying their allure, visually. But as the severity of the slope increases, so do your potential problems. Your age and other challenges may exacerbate some of these problems, a brief sampling of which follows:
- Water runoff
- Soil erosion
- Difficulty with snow removal
- Difficulty mowing the lawn
In addition, take into account that many other landscaping tasks will be three times as difficult to accomplish on a hillside as would otherwise be the case -- for instance, pushing a wheelbarrow around to move mulch, soil, etc. And we won't even discuss how often you'll be chasing after rounded objects that have rolled downhill on you, like plastic pots and balls of twine....
So what can you do to alleviate at least some of these problems, if you already own such a property? You should certainly consider the wisdom of planting ground covers on the most precipitous parts of your hillside, to avoid having to mow. And retaining walls are sometimes installed to tame steep slopes, creating terraces.
Indeed, if you find yourself unable to resist the visual allure of hillside properties, terracing may be the solution to meeting the challenges of hillside landscaping. Terraced hills are much more enjoyable to garden upon than are un-terraced hills. And some of the most striking landscapes I've ever encountered have been achieved through terracing. It's just a question of whether such beauty is worth all the hassle that comes with it (a personal decision).
On Page 4 and Page 5, we'll explore two more quality of life factors to consider when shopping for real estate. They're "people factors," and they can go a long way toward determining whether or not you'd enjoy your landscaping on a particular plot of land....
