Update photos please?:) I just stumbled on this thread. Seems like it's been a few years, I'm so curious how it all turned out. I've got dilemmas in my garden too, although for different reasons. But my location is also shady. In your case, there r so many scenarios possible, I've already imagined your slope in quite a few different ones. Up to the point where you started marinating on the flagstones. I wonder what you chose to do :)

To jump my RIO, I located the polarized plug at the reverse pedal switch which has two wires in it. The connections are the 1/4" solderless connectors. I made a 1.5" wire with a male 1/4" connector on each end and plugged that into the polarized connectors slots (jumping it), applied elect grease and then wrapped it with good tape to keep it clean. The switch is normally closed. Your going to get a lot of flack for doing this- so prepare yourself. :) I have to do way too much backing up to worry about that switch and have done fine for 20 years without one. Kids are grown and women don't follow me around anymore- so I feel it's safe. :))

Have been mowing fairly severe sloped property crosswise for twenty-five years. The best advice is to treat every time as if it were your first time. Be very careful, and realize that an accident can happen at any time. Based on my experience, the surest way to guarantee an accident is to mow a slope up and down. Ask anybody who has had their tractor turn into a bobsled while going downhill. Purchased a JDX300 and opted for the 48" deck normally found on the X324. FYI, I tested three tractors (Broadmoor Simplicity, JDLA120, and JDX300)on the property before settling on the X300. IMO the Broadmoor is a terrific product and provided the best cut, but the X300 was more stable on the slopes (but only after tweaking the seat shut off switch). The LA120 was simply overmatched by the task, and is best suited for a flat property no bigger than a couple of acres. LA120 engine doesn't provide the necessary torque, and transmission is not recommended for slopes. Don't be fooled by stated HP of engine. The Kawis have way more torque. Very pleased with the X300 after the initial twenty hours of usage.

Gaitten asked: How long does soil improvement last? A very good question. It's one I've often thought about myself, when hauling home compostables or adding organic materials to my garden. The clearest, simplest answer I can offer from my reading and gardening experience is "It depends." 'Soil improvement' can include organic or mined or manufactured or processed inputs (usually called 'fertilizers') and various kinds of organic materials in various states (usually called 'soil amendments' -- although many of them, like compost and manures, are also direct or indirect aids to increased fertility.) Some of those inputs don't last very long. Nitrogen, for one example, can leach out with water flow, or outgas up in the air. Plants will use most of what nitrogen remains in the soil within a year, except what is temporarily tied up by bacteria, fungi, and the rest of the microherd. However, from the context of your post, it seems you are wondering how long organic materials will remain in the soil. Again, the answer is "It depends." There are multiple factors which influence how long OM remains in the soil. I would guess the four most important external factors are temperature, soil moisture, air supply, and cultivation. When soil is warmer, it becomes more biologically active. The soil microherd consumes the organic materials; this process improves soil fertility and structure (tilth) but over time it also degrades and consumes the organic materials which are the microherd's food source. When soil is damp (but not soaking wet like a bog) this also stimulates the microherd and consumes the OM. When there is good airflow in the soil, allowing oxygen to reach the microherd and carbon dioxide and other gases to escape -- aerobic conditions, in other words -- the microherd will grow and continue to reduce the OM. Cultivation -- digging or plowing or harrowing or raking the soil -- also increases airflow, especially in heavier soils with high amounts of clay and silt. One of the major advantages of no-till and reduced-till cultivation is these approaches help to increase soil organic matter over time. Temperature, moisture, air, and cultivation are largely physical processes. They each have biological and environmental impacts, certainly. Yet soil is more than just a physics project -- soil is a chemical and biological environment, an ecosystem. You also asked: If my property were abandoned today and completely neglected, would the vegetation that followed drain the soil of all the benefits of my soil improvements over time? Or will improved areas likely remain improved for decades to come. The answer to this question depends first on what kinds of organic materials are already in your improved soil, and what organic materials would be returned to it by being neglected for years. If the gardeners who built up the black delicious loam you describe used organic materials which are very slow to completely decompose -- the cellulose and lignins in wood are two examples -- the soil as-it-is-now will likely remain in good quality for a decade or more. During that time, assuming the garden soil didn't become heavily compacted with foot or vehicle traffic; assuming there was good rainfall for growth, but not too much; assuming good sunlight in the growing seasons, and amenable temperatures for growth -- existing weed seeds in your garden, and weeds brought in by wind and birds and animals, would likely create a new kind of ecosystem. Call it a weed garden. :) Within one or two decades the plants growing there would likely become bigger and taller bushes and shrubs and trees, their roots reaching further down and wider. These bigger plants would leave more debris on the surface which would decompose and recycle the organic materials originally taken from the garden. Their decaying roots and root hairs would also tend to maintain (and gradually increase) the amount of soil organic matter over time. Wind and water erosion, earthquakes, and other natural forces could slow or deter this process. However, under most natural conditions for most of the time, soil gradually continues to improve, until the content of organic matter held in the soil reaches an optimum for the climate zone where the soil is located. Cooler and semi-arid climates (like the Canadian Prairies, the great plains of the US, the Ukrainian and Russian steppes) tend to leach fewer nutrients and encourage grassland growth. Which tends to build deeper layers of topsoil and create more below-ground organic reserves. Damper and warmer climates (like the eastern seaboard of the US, the rain forest of Pacific northwest in Canada and the States, and the tropical rainforest in South America) tend to concentrate their biomass above ground, in trees and in the plant and animal life living on the trees. These soils don't hold as high a concentration of organic materials. All of the above doesn't really speak directly to your ultimate questions, Gaitten -- sorry :) -- but from my understanding, the many processes going on in soil creation and degradation all interact with each other in so many different ways, it's difficult to give a clear simple answer to what you asked. In three years of gardening here in my downtown Toronto back yard, I've built compost piles beyond counting from kitchen scraps, yard waste bags hauled home from nearby streets, and the used coffee grounds from a local coffeeshop. I've dug in leaf mold and built lasagna piles, even tried an Interbay mulch pile which produced 6-8" of beautiful compost in one season over a 5' x 8' garden bed. In my experience, and from my reading, adding large amounts of organic materials -- 2" or more of mature compost topped with a good mulch to protect it from wind and rain erosion -- has an immediate beneficial impact on the garden soil in the following growth season. Plants are bigger and healthier, more resistant to pests and diseases; they produce more. Yet without fail I've noticed the positive affect of the mature compost and mulch degrades within a year -- whether left on the surface or tilled in, shallow or deep. Unless more organic material is added, plants don't grow as well in following seasons. As a relatively new composter I found this discouraging. When I researched online I discovered what I half-seriously call The Dark Dirty Secret of compost: it goes away. Roughly 85-95% of raw fresh organic materials disappear in the first year compost is made and applied to soil. Of the remaining 5-15% about 1/3 disappears in two to five years, consumed by the microherd. 1/3 may last 5-25 years. 1/3 might -- might -- still be around one hundred to a thousand years from now. It's my personal conviction, based on reading and on my own experience, that intense soul cultivation, excessive watering, and the heavyhanded use of fertilizers (especially nitrogen and potassium) increases the breakdown of longterm organic materials in soil. Mulching and reduced tillage seem to slow this breakdown and build better soils faster, in my garden. This past year I've started to experiment with green manures and I'm hopeful they will also help improve the soil. It's a pleasant thought to imagine some small part of the organic materials I add to my garden may still be helpful 10, 25 or 100 years from now. Assuming no-one turns it into a parking lot or a construction site. :) You might find by Steve Solomon's book Organic Gardener's Composting a useful resource, especially Chapter Eight, "Maintaining Soil Humus." The full text is available free online at his excellent site, soilandhealth.org. Solomon explores these kinds of questions in far more detail and with references to other soil and gardening texts. All the best, -Patrick