Yep. If moving is ever an affordable option again, a "must have" is a reasonably-flat yard. At least manageable that a push mower isn't a big deal or I can actually justify getting a ride-on mow.
My yard now is pretty steep. I've learned how to safely and effectively mow it with my push mower but a ride-on mower would not be safe, but everyone suggests it. I will definitely have to pay someone to mow it if I'm still here and super old (which wasn't the plan when we bought years ago)
30° there is not much, but the one i linked.works, and husquarna got one as well. Don't know if you can get them in the US though, and ofc they are quite expensive.
or a turf grass lawn may not be a “must have” at all. Plant natives, restore the native ecosystem in your backyard, and don’t worry about mowing more than once per year. We create our own yard work by desperately keeping high maintenance lawns around.
I had a flat plot with a lake behind it, I was responsible for mowing the grass beyond my back fence to the water line. That moderate incline was enough for me to never want to deal with it again.
I live in the hills in the bay area. you think this is steep? I just hired some guys to do my annual fire prevention thistle/grass/brush clearing for a lot smaller than this one, 2500 bucks.
the slope is somewhere between 30 and 45 degrees and the ground is very dry this time of year. they use climbing ropes and whatnot just to be able to hold footing. I’ve seen deer slip a little, haha.
In basically every other region of the US, if a building company asked to build on that grade the local government would be like "Literally never talk to me again."
my lot is mild compared to some of my neighbors’ houses — I’m astonished that people figured out how to build these homes on piles etc. some of them, the house is basically invisible from the street. you see a driveway/carport and the house is below that built down into the hill. those make me feel uneasy and being inside is odd because the house is typically shaped like a cone that gets smaller as you go down each floor.
not really. we protect a lot of land as nature preserves and people have been building houses like that in this neighborhood since the 50s and 60s, though mine is much newer. I also don't live on the coast. I live in an oak/redwood/eucalyptus forest in the east bay. look up reinhardt redwood regional park -- I can walk there in about 15 minutes.
yup, check out a topographical map and you'll see that there are a lot of rolling hills in the bay area, some small 'mountains.' san francisco is built on what I mean by the rolling hills. the coast here isn't super dramatic, generally. gotta go further north or south to get sheer cliffs, like in big sur.
I live in the flat lands of Indiana. No building on a grade of more than 15° and less than 10 is preferred. Also right next to a forest preserve, funny enough
went to chicago and ann arbor last summer, your part of the country is truly flat. from atlanta originally. seems flat but there are gentle hills and even real mountains up north.
I’m with you. My yard is easily in the 30-45 degree range in most spots and I could never use any kind of mover for it. Takes weeks of manually weedeating the entire thing myself to stay up to code in the spring (I’m in a fire prone area).
yeah, I always say I'm gonna get out there in late spring and use the weedeater, but then there's a bunch of clippings etc. that are tough to rake up. and I have slipped and slid down about 10 ft -- not worth it. I need to come up with a longterm plan to add large plants and eliminate as much of the job as possible.
is there any reason you can't just remove the vegetation? what's stopping you from enacting a "scorched earth" approach? there are a few houses near me with unmowable grades that are basically a solid wall of big river rock. nothing grows, nothing has to be maintained, it's just a hill of rocks.
I live in the desert where it’s both extremely dry most of the time but also absolutely dumps rain on us a few times a year. Best course of action here is to grow natives to hold the hill up or it’s much more likely to erode. Unfortunately it’s too steep of an incline to be stabilized with rocks. I would need a structural engineer and an extreme amount of money to stabilize the hill first I think before even attempting any kind of rock landscaping.
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u/PublicEnemaNumberOne 4d ago
Yep. You only need to own a place with a slope once to never buy a place with a slope again.