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Olivenhain Municipal Water District’s 2020 WaterSmart Landscape Contest winner Laura Lisauskas redid her family’s street-facing sloped side yard. Photo: Olivenhain Municipal Water District

Protect Your Hillsides and Slopes 

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San Diego County features many native canyons, and many homes are located in proximity to a native canyon. Native canyon hillsides near your home should not be disturbed. The more you can adapt your home’s landscaping to Nature’s landscaping, the healthier and more low maintenance it will be.

Your home may have been built on canyon slopes leveled or filled. When planting in previously disturbed or built slopes and hillsides, choose low-water use plants and trees, especially deep-rooted native plant species. Climate-appropriate plants with strong root structures are the best choices. Their powerful root systems can help hold your soil together.

Coarse compost and mulch can be applied directly to hillside and slope surfaces, providing protection from the force of rainfall and shading exposed soils, if your slope is gentle with a 33% grade or less. With occasional and gentle irrigation, mulch will “knit” together.

Compost blankets are another type of erosion control mat applied to the soil surface to protect and preserve it. They can be used alone, with coir mats or other organic-engineered material with biodegradable grids for stabilization. Mats allow water to penetrate through to the underlying soils while retaining loose soil and debris, preventing erosion. You can plant right through them, or use pre-seeded products.

Irrigation tips to help preserve hillsides

Be sure your irrigation plan takes into account hills and slopes to prevent wasting water and erosion. Photo: Pixabay

Prepping Hillside for planting

When preparing a hillside for planting, plan your irrigation before doing any work. Low-volume rotating spray heads are ideal for sloped areas, if the space is large and the groundcover is uniform. Inline emitter drip tubing can also be effective, especially for wider-spaced shrubs and trees.

Water can be applied in repeated short periods over the course of 24 hours so it can be fully absorbed between application times. Runoff, erosion, and efficient deep watering should be factored into all landscaping plans, but especially for hillsides.

NOTE: When using a drip irrigation system, emitters should be placed above the plant basin. Spray systems should have check valves in all lower heads to avoid low point runoff. Irrigation for the top of the slope and bottom of the slope should be on separate valves.

This article is part of a year-long series inspired by the 71-page Sustainable Landscapes Program guidebook. The Water Authority and its partners also offer other great resources for landscaping upgrades, including free WaterSmart classes at WaterSmartSD.org.

Deadly Encinitas Cliff Collapse Is A Warning Sign For California Coast

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Soumya Karlamangla

The deadly cliff collapse in Encinitas last week raised questions about the stability of large swaths of the state that are lined by bluffs, many of which support houses or offer enticing patches of shade for families relaxing on the beach. Friday’s collapse, which killed three people, was a tragic consequence of sea cliffs’ natural erosion process, experts say. Chunks of bluffs regularly fall off to create the beach below, so all beach bluffs should be considered unstable, said Brian Ketterer, coastal division chief for California State Parks.

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Heavy Rainfall Could Expedite Erosion Of San Diego’s Coastal, Inland Cliffs

/in , /by /10 News (San Diego)by Mark Saunders

Several recent storms to hit the San Diego County region could spell disaster for erosion prone areas of the coast and inland valleys. Rainfall running over coastal bluffs with a history of erosion could increase the likelihood of future erosions along our shores. Adam Young, a scientist with Scripps Institution of Oceanography San Diego, says an active season already could led to more crumbling of local cliff sides following heavy showers. “Pretty much whenever you have a new rainfall event, you’ll pretty much see a new landslide … The more rain we get, the more landslides,” Young says. “Every time you have a failure, stress distribution can change.”

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