Quote Originally Posted by toby
http://www.swingsetbuilders.com/site_prep.html

But, in the example picture, it looks like instead of leveling the high side, they built up the low side with railroad ties. Does anyone have thoughts on this? It would involve a lot less digging and soil moving. It also looks like they added the pea gravel BEFORE putting the set on-- is this not a good idea because of stability and compacting?
If your yard is similar to the picture, I think using the rr ties is the ONLY way to go. Even if you added dirt to level off an area, you'd still need some sort of support/retaining wall on the slope side to keep the dirt there.

If you use pea gravel, I think you are okay installing the set on top of it. I wouldn't install on top of mulch, though, because it breaks down over time so you'd get settling.