guidance for a newbie?

jackrussell007

hi folks
I'm hoping you can make some suggestions for a newbie.

an estate was built next to my home 2 or 3 years ago. the builders had to used a lot of landfill to raise the site and as a result there is an embankment next to my garden. When my fence 'fell' down i thought I might as well leave it down and maybe make something out of this embankment.. I'm not much of a gardener to be honest and with a young family I have neither time nor money to spend on it. I would like however to have it at least looking presentable. At the moment I think it looks like a building site.

what I'm looking for is some hardy fast growing shrubs that would spread quickly and not require a lot of maintenance. the land up there isnt great, basically its clay and rock. you can see from the links below that some trees have started growing up at the top of the embankment.(hawthorn I think) I cleared away the rest of the ditch a couple of weekends ago so hopefully in time that hawthorn will spread down the rest of the embankment.

any suggestions are appreciated?


http://img585.imageshack.us/i/dscf0256q.jpg/

http://img854.imageshack.us/i/dscf0257q.jpg/

http://img803.imageshack.us/i/dscf0258.jpg/

shawnee

I suppose the first thing I would say is that if you don't do anything with ground you will end up with lots of weeds. If you could first kill or dig out whatever weeds are on the site. Then if you could put some form of mulch on it, which is basically anything that will keep down weeds. You can buy a synthetic weedblock in a roll but that can be costly enough. You could also cover it with lawn grass clippings or something similar. I would then plant a few grond cover plants , pissibly cotoneaster or similar and these will eventually cover the area.

slowburner

That bank looks like something of a challenge alright
It looks to me as if there's next to no soil. That's going to invite some fairly horrible guests in no time, as Shawnee said - I'm thinking senecios, gorse and the dread yellow weed.
It wouldn't be cheap, but you could extend the raised planter along the bank. You could even build a second bed behind that - a couple of terraces, in effect, and then you could plant whatever tickles your fancy.
It's hard to gauge the aspect from the pictures but it would be worthwhile to control the shrubs above the bank (willows?) if they're going to block light.

magicbastarder

what is under the loose stones?