Suggestions for landscaping a steep bank

looksee · 12-04-2023 8:39pm

I have a couple that I inherited with the garden, the taller of the two is about 4ft but they are living on a very steep bank with no topsoil, just rocky, sandy subsoil, in almost permanent shade, and still they flower beautifully! I've been thinking of getting a few more but haven't made the effort yet. I reckon they have been there years.

Cuttlefish · 12-04-2023 11:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120470838#Comment_120470838

Any chance of a photo or two ?

looksee · 13-04-2023 8:50am

Sure, but don't expect too much of the bank, whatever is willing to grow there just grows, mostly weeds, dead nettle (Yellow Archangels), sedum and a bit of Rubus Tricolour (which has been severely cut back but keeps coming) but they hold the surface together! The rocks are randomly gathered, the garden grows more rocks than plants, and may become a wall at some stage.

This was just taken (8.30am) and the sun is now pulling back behind the house so the bit of early morning sun is all it gets. The bigger one has been in lovely flower but is about over, the smaller one is still in flower. The bigger one is just over 4ft, its hard to measure on the slope!

standardg60 · 13-04-2023 5:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120470815#Comment_120470815

They will get bigger than that if left but you can trim them after flowering, as long as you keep plenty of leaf. I'd actually trim the ones you have back by half now as it will encourage them to bush out.

The other ericas should be trimmed after flowering too, trim just below the faded flowers but again keep plenty of leaf.

Cuttlefish · 30-04-2023 11:40pm

Evening folks

So this evening I planted out a section oon top of the wall, let me know what ye think?

Do I need to add more than the two carpet roses' and the Diosma or will they grow/ spread and fill the area? The carpet roses are supposed to have a 1 metre spread

Cuttlefish · 01-05-2023 6:31pm

Slight change to this section - removed all daffodil bulbs

planted some anemone bulbs to the front right of this section and came me across these plants that might look nice - thinking if 4 or 5 of these -Imperata “red baron”

Cuttlefish · 18-07-2023 2:53pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120445066#Comment_120445066

You were dead right about the membrane, it started to tear shortly after installing and was really annoyed with myself when it started to happen!! It was supposed to be heavy duty!! Heavy duty my ass LOL

Anyways I have started to cover this with a better hard wearing membrane as seen below

Cuttlefish · 18-07-2023 2:57pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120030356#Comment_120030356

Decided on getting backs of garden soil think €108 for 32 bags and delivery was free so worked out more or less about the same if getting a bag (tonne or less) delivered and meant I could lug them all in from the front to the bag and work at my own pace. I actually have three/ four bags left so I had more than enough in the end. I think a one tonne bag would have been too much. Will post a couple of photos of how it looks now.

Let me know what ye think!

Cuttlefish · 18-07-2023 2:58pm

Here is the wall as of yesterday, let me know what ye think!

looksee · 18-07-2023 4:18pm

It looks gorgeous!

wildwillow · 18-07-2023 4:36pm

Looks great, especially after the long dry spell we had last month.

OscarMIlde · 22-07-2023 1:39pm

Looks great. Such a change in how it looks. Must be nice to have all the hard work pay off.

Cuttlefish · 22-07-2023 3:29pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120882775#Comment_120882775

Getting there. will see how the plants establish themselves and in the Spring maybe add plants where there are gaps but overall it is looking good.

I was disappointed with weed fabric that I i bought and installed in March, it didnt last a few weeks before breaking up. So have started laying down are harder wearing weed fabric. Hard area to work with but doing it in small sections.

phormium · 22-07-2023 3:56pm

Looks great, had to do a similar sort of space few years back, used old carpet instead of weed fabric until plants were established, got some old books of samples from carpet shop and put them down between plants, easy then to work around plants as they are only smallish squares of carpet. I normally put it face down and did initially but later when I was happy with enough planting and spread and just wanted to fill in spaces with gravel I turned it to face up as it held the stones better. In bigger beds I just used old carpet in a sheet and cut holes for plants as you would with membrane and covered then with gravel. Nothing will come up through carpet and even if weeds manage to root in the gravel they don't get down through the carpet.

Interestingly I did 4 large beds, 3 done with carpet as weed suppressant and membrane in the final one when I ran out of carpet and couldn't get my hands on some more. The 3 carpet beds are thriving but the plants in the membrane one have been slower to take off and had to replace several along the way!

I had that lovely red grass myself several times and it never came back a second year unfortunately. I have a lot of London Pride as a filler in the high border, easy to divide to fill new gaps as needed, great ground cover and evergreen.

Suggestions for landscaping a steep bank

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