A steeply pitched lot can present a challenge for even the most seasoned garden designer. Many resort to terracing the slope to create flat ground to work within, but moving that much earth is ...

Slopes change a gardener's perspective. No flat lawns and meandering paths, but inclines and declines on which it can be difficult to stand, dig or weed and where plant choices seem more precarious.

Everyone Feroshia Knight knew advised her not to buy the house on a steep lot in Portland's West Hills. "I had contractor friends tell me they wouldn't come near it," recalls Knight. "It was an ...