hello! i am relatively new at gardening/landscaping and have a series of very important decisions to make. i have some idea of what i want to accomplish, but am not so sure of how to get there.

our house is built at the top of a hillside, facing east. our yard extends about 30' and then it drops off to the street, a distance of about 45' down a steep hillside.

the previous owners, who lived here for 50 years, had planted about 35 fir and cedar trees to hold the hillside and they grew quite large.

over the past 6 years, we have had the big trees on the south half of the hillside harvested for their wood, and to bring some sun into our yard.

the east half of our lot (the steep part), had been neglected because of the difficulty of navigating it. the weeds and wild things had taken it over, especially the south half where the trees had been removed.

in may, a man with a big machine came in and terraced the south half of the hillside, giving us 2 large flat areas (16'x 25') on which to create raised beds for food. on the north half, he graded the land so that i can walk from one portion to another without having to swing from the branches of bushes.

at this point...we have a blank slate on which to build the kind of beautiful landscape we have always wanted, and that brings me to my questions for this group.

beautiful landscapes take time. i have learned that if we just bring in a bunch of topsoil all manner of things will grow in it, some good some not-so-good.

what i want to do is place mulch/topsoil in specific places for specific plants as we make decisions on what to plant, and just cover the dirt/pit run with something organic to hold the dirt and slow down the weeds.

we are working with a rather large area, 90' x 45'. we have thought of using straw/hay or wood chips from asplundh for this purpose. is that a good idea, or have we missed an obvious and better choice? we are do-it-yourselfers and are not inclined to hire a landscaper, but that means we'll take a lot longer to accomplish our goals. we've got to hold this dirt in place and try to control things until we have it laid out like we want.

i'd post pictures, but haven't yet figured out how to do that on this site.

thanks in advance for any suggestions/ideas/guidance you may have!

lanni