Some years ago, Sandy and John planned a broad berm between a curving road and their new hillside house.

What is a berm?

It’s a pushed-up mound, usually earthen. It can be used to separate two areas, or as a border.

A built (bulldozed?) berm may be put up to control or deflect erosion or sediment, by slowing the rate water flows down a slope. It may be put in place to control the rate stormwater moves into an established wetland, to protect it.

Sandy wanted space to plant a variety of bulbs, annual and perennial flowers, shrubs and even a tree. John saw the berm as a noise barrier, blocking the view from the road and a polite privacy fence.

Truckloads of soil were pushed into a curving pile, three or four feet high. The curve was planned to guide rainwater and melting snow toward a small copse, where John had started a few plants.

The berm’s soil was tamped down. After a few days, planting began.

Neighbors watched as gradually, growing things were added. Sandy had designed this vertical garden bed’s plant heights and combinations with much thought, so it’s always a pleasure and a surprise to pass by.

Suddenly, a tree appeared at the top of the upper section of the berm. It was a small weeping larch (tamarack). Would it hold?

Years later, it has set roots into and through the berm, evidently growing straight down into the earth. Here was an anchor!

Now, several flowering shrubs crown the established mound. Seasonally, passers-by can watch continuing displays. Because these woody plants are seen from almost underneath, one has a different view from shrubs growing on level ground.

Sandy changes the perennials and annuals from year to year, so the berm, whose vertical sides are fully planted in summer, has plenty for everyone to look at and enjoy. By now, the space is so well established that there’s a birdhouse on it, and birds use it.

How does this construction work? Traffic sounds are quieter. The homeowners have a delightful view in summer. Year-round, evening auto headlights no longer shine in their windows. For passers-by, their gaze is deflected from that house by the unusual sight of that fully-planted berm. Yes, that plan, carried out, has been a success.

Elsewhere, berms have a variety of forms, for a variety of uses. Seasonal barriers, made of packed snow, may be used to form the slalom paths for skiers or snowboarders, or even for toboggan runs.

When a highway is being constructed in segments, one part may be ready as far as an on-ramp to another highway; as a further reminder, the unfinished part may be temporarily closed off by a berm. Count a berm as the opposite to a swale. Where the land rises, the first is constructed;where it dips, the second, more usually, is natural.

This is my view — from my untutored eye. If you had your druthers, what would you do?