Hillside gardening requires a little more of the gardener: more attention to safety, more specialized techniques for stabilizing the slope, and in many cases, more money. It may sound exhausting, but ...

The goal with the hillside is to give us some privacy while eating, but not so much it looks like a wall of vegetation. (Marcia Westcott Peck) Hillsides have played a major role in military history.

When Esther Hayden moved into her Seven Oaks home in 1990, the hillside in her backyard — similar to many found throughout Rancho Bernardo — had mostly ground cover and was spotted with a few trees.