Sloping garden, what to do with it, help please

[Adenauer]

We have a slope at the front of the house which is about 20 metres long and 4 high.

It's a pain in the neck to have to strim and now that I'm the wrong side of sixty it's not something I really want to be doing.

Any ideas / suggestions of what we could do with it to make it more user friendly?

Here's as it currently is.



We had fancied something like this but when the quote came in at €45,000 we thought, maybe not.



We saw this and thought it might be an option but it's a bit messy, and would we be dead before it grew over properly?

[Adenauer]

Apologies for the last picture, I was just falling over

[TTmonkey]

If you dont want to utilise the garden space, then yes I suggest the low ground cover planting would be great, probably needs a couple of thousand spent on some mature plants (you don’t want to wait forever for it to grow and spread) and then will need minimal care going forward. Good cover for small birds etc, perhaps think about a plant that provides winter berries for feed?

Also good once a mature covering is in there for blocking people walking up there.

[dundarach]

I'd leave it, it looks nice and is easy to keep.

Factor in paying a local youth \ gardener to strim every now and again, let's say £300 a year, 20 years 6k, you'll not sort it and keep it for that

[Adenauer]

dundarach said:

I'd leave it, it looks nice and is easy to keep.

Factor in paying a local youth \ gardener to strim every now and again, let's say £300 a year, 20 years 6k, you'll not sort it and keep it for that

It's steeper than it looks in the picture, it really is a pain in the bum to strim, I have thought of finding someone to do it for me but nobody seems interested.

TTmonkey, any suggestions on the type of plant to put down? I don't have a problem throwing a few grand at it to get it done, but the 45 grand quote we got for doing a few walls made me feel a bit sick.

[The jiffle king]

A retaining wall, dig out and a parking space?
A stepped garden (Still needs retaining wall/s) ?
Wall at the front and build up behind it to make it more level (Local builders will have access to cheap or even free hardcore to help) ?

[Silvanus]

Adenauer said:

dundarach said:

I'd leave it, it looks nice and is easy to keep.

Factor in paying a local youth \ gardener to strim every now and again, let's say £300 a year, 20 years 6k, you'll not sort it and keep it for that

It's steeper than it looks in the picture, it really is a pain in the bum to strim, I have thought of finding someone to do it for me but nobody seems interested.

TTmonkey, any suggestions on the type of plant to put down? I don't have a problem throwing a few grand at it to get it done, but the 45 grand quote we got for doing a few walls made me feel a bit sick.

With regards to plants/shrubs, it depends on what effect you want to achieve.

You could go with native plants or go for something more formal, or something in-between.

What sort of hight do you want them to grow? Do you want a small hedge along the border?

There are a huge variety of possible planting options. Exactly the sort of job I like doing.

[Deesee]

Have a look at Tobermore Secura Grand

https://www.tobermore.co.uk/professional/products/...

[Pieman68]

Could you do retaining walls with bastions as a cheaper option?

Mine's the back garden but I dug out and built a retainer with sleepers

[sam.rog]

Plant it with wildflowers. Helps the wildlife and you’ll only have to strim it once a year.
Much nicer than concrete and gravel.

[Mr Pointy]

Where are you? your use of € suggests you might not be in the UK.

[Adenauer]

sam.rog said:

Plant it with wildflowers. Helps the wildlife and you’ll only have to strim it once a year.
Much nicer than concrete and gravel.

I like this idea, my wife would LOVE it. But wouldn't it just look messy when they're not it bloom?

[Adenauer]

Pieman68 said:

Could you do retaining walls with bastions as a cheaper option?

Mine's the back garden but I dug out and built a retainer with sleepers

Mrs A won't entertain those, I've tried and it's a 'they're horrible'. I tried to say that we could have nice stones in them and got a look.

[Evanivitch]

sam.rog said:

Plant it with wildflowers. Helps the wildlife and you’ll only have to strim it once a year.
Much nicer than concrete and gravel.

This. Now around the edge, keep the middle wildflower.

If you can get a mini-digger to take away the top layer of turf then that's ideal. Could also add something like rowan/mountain ash on the bank for a bit of depth.

Alternatively, heather, creeping thyme or lavender.

Please avoid cotoneaster, it's widely used in this application but a bit of a hand grenade.

[Adenauer]

Silvanus said:

With regards to plants/shrubs, it depends on what effect you want to achieve.

You could go with native plants or go for something more formal, or something in-between.

What sort of hight do you want them to grow? Do you want a small hedge along the border?

There are a huge variety of possible planting options. Exactly the sort of job I like doing.

I'm really not fussed as long as I don't have to maintain it

I also don't think we'd need a hedge at the top, it's too high to see over and we live in a little private road with 5 houses in total, we don't actually use the front garden at all.

[EmailAddress]

[Adenauer]

Just found another picture which probably gives you a better idea, this is after I've strimmed it.



Jesus Christ

[dudleybloke]

Flymo and some rope.

[Adenauer]

dudleybloke said:

Flymo and some rope.

Tried that years ago, doesn't work and I looked like the 'vot iz zet mad Englishman doing now' to the neighbors.

[EmailAddress]

FTFY