Help with garden!!

StarBright01

Looking for some advice here please

We purchased a house recently and the house comes with a .75 acre garden at the back of the house. Its like a field at the moment and on different levels. It's completely unmanageable as we have little ones so we are getting someone in to level it off and make it into some easy to maintain for the time being (little weeding etc!!) Our guess is that a big lawn would be easier to maintain with a ride on lawnmover than having a garden with lots of shrubs, plant beds etc.

As the 0.75 acres is on a slope with ditches in wrong places etc, we are getting in a guy with a mini digger to level it off. The person we are getting in to level it off recommends having a slopped garden as opposed to a two tier garden. We would ideally like something that in 10 years time we would have flexibility to turn it into veg garden etc (if we have time )

My question is, would there be more benefits to a sloped garden as opposed to two tiered?

Sorry for long-winded post!!

Harry Palmr

Well I suppose it depends what you want - personally I'd have two levels and make one the lawn from the start and leave the other half in "abeyance" Level it, dig it over once to avoid panning (where water sits on compacted soil) and then plant mulch crops like clovers and rye grass and essentially let it look after itself as a semi meadow until you are ready to get horticultural with it.

A slope is self draining but whether that is a good or a bad thing depends on the soil, if it's light and quick draining anyway then you'll have dry unproductive soil at the top of the slope (then again I don't know the angle, whether it's open to lots of direct sun and wind (drying) or in shade of evergreen trees (damping))

Obviously a slope is harder work to mow! Including a ride on as the bottom could become a permanent damp area

StarBright01

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Well I suppose it depends what you want - personally I'd have two levels and make one the lawn from the start and leave the other half in "abeyance" Level it, dig it over once to avoid panning (where water sits on compacted soil) and then plant mulch crops like clovers and rye grass and essentially let it look after itself as a semi meadow until you are ready to get horticultural with it.

A slope is self draining but whether that is a good or a bad thing depends on the soil, if it's light and quick draining anyway then you'll have dry unproductive soil at the top of the slope (then again I don't know the angle, whether it's open to lots of direct sun and wind (drying) or in shade of evergreen trees (damping))

Obviously a slope is harder work to mow! Including a ride on as the bottom could become a permanent damp area

Harry thanks for the reply! it's a north facing garden technically but nothing is shading it and it would get plenty sunlight. Definitely would be subject to lots of wind and close to sea.

Harry Palmr

Much of a slope? The % drop off in productivity when growing crops facing north is notable compared to a south/south west facing slope. That said you're not a business!

Lumen

Slope is great for drainage and crap for ball games.

Take your pick!

Personally I prefer flat with proper drainage scheme. Not 0% flat, maybe 2%.

The terraces don't need to be equal. Maybe create one large flat area and then some terracing to fix levels round the edge.

Grass is relatively cheap and quick to fix.

What you need to get right is levels so you can plant trees, because once trees are in you can't change the levels.

Get trees in the first year or two then you'll still be alive to enjoy then when they're big!

StarBright01

Thank you all your advice, much appreciated!