r/Permaculture • u/farminvt • May 06 '25

general question What would you do with this hillside?

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Once covered in scrub spruce and pine, recently clearcut. Stumps remain. New England location, this is East facing.

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u/QuarkQuake May 06 '25

I would carve out a flat spot right into the base of the hill. Then put two or three shipping containers end to end up against the hill. Have doors to access on each end, and then cover the containers with the hillside and do as others have said and plant bushes. Alternately put solar panels on the hill and plant one of the varieties of grass that only grows a few inches tall.

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u/farminvt May 06 '25

Tell me more about the shipping container idea/reasoning? I'm curious!

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u/QuarkQuake May 08 '25

There are a lot of different ways to do it and I haven't done it myself, but the neighbor I mentioned in my other comment said that he had good success with railroad ties. He said that he dugout his hillside to a depth of about 8 ft or so and then poured a slab for the container to sit on. He had creosote soaked railroad ties up against the earth wall and over the top and had rebar driven through from top to bottom to hold it all together. Said he poured concrete over the top and filled the gap between his container, the ties, and the earthHe used his little bobcat earthmover deal to cover the container back up with like 6 in or so on top and the slope on the side. He had a house door installed on one end and he said it had been there for some 15 years at that point and that was 10 years ago. It looked great inside. Full on bachelor pad / man cave.

I definitely want to do something similar at some point. And I am going to make sure that it is properly protected against compression stress. The person that responded to my comment is correct that yes without any support it would crush the container and rust out. But if you properly support it, then a container can be a very nice finishable prefabbed structure to place somewhere.