Garden section suggestions

randombar

Hi All,

Looking for some suggestions for this area of my garden, there's a patio in front of the wall so the slope is dodgy out for kids, will need a fence or something.

Slope is too steep for the ride on too, have given up with it and just use the push mower.

Looking for something cheap and very very easy to maintain, the idea of weeding a huge flower bed like that scares me.

Thinking steps at the left hand end up to the upper garden and some kind of two level terrace with a fence at the top. Terracing being made up with railway sleepers or something but that would cost way too much (I think I'd need about 50 of them), maybe I could use scaffold planks or split telegraph poles?

Thinking I could have some kind of vegetable garden in the terrace? Maybe move the clothes line up there?

Any suggestions appreciated, open to anything. Any questions just shout.

Norfolk Enchants_

Is that you in the diagram? you look pretty fit, phrooah.

randombar

Norfolk Enchants_ wrote: »

Is that you in the diagram? you look pretty fit, phrooah.

I work out . .

Technophobe

GaryCocs wrote: »

I work out . .

well, a bit of weeding shouldn't kill you then

Lavender for starters as a flower...herb section ?

small garlic bed ?

randombar

Technophobe wrote: »

well, a bit of weeding shouldn't kill you then

Lavender for starters as a flower...herb section ?

small garlic bed ?

Too true

So you reckon terracing with a couple of beds would be the way to go?

Lavender would be nice, much maintenance in a herb garden?

Technophobe

It's like everything, you get out what you put in, except with herbs or garlic/onions, you get more out...:pac:

Maintenance can be easy enough, but if you are going for something to grow as edibles, make sure you can reach all parts of the bed from the pathway you create....

Herbs can be anything from simple chives to oregano, parsley, thyme, chervil etc...Most of these can be bought each year as small plants and stuck in, some will even overwinter depending on severity of winter....Just give them a good cut back....

Really depends what you want tho....do you want a colour filled space? then probably flowers....If you use herbs regularly, then they are a goer....small bed of onions/garlic requires very little upkeep....and so on

randombar

Thanks for that, it gives me an idea of what to put into the beds now and terracing does seem to be the way to go.

Any ideas on how to complete the terracing? Sleepers etc?

pwurple

Gary, I'd suggest taking your garden measurements and diagram to a local good garden center (in cork, try hillside nurseries in glountaune) and ask them to advise you on a planting scheme for that area.

They can lay them all out on the ground in front of you in rows, show you which go to the back, and which to the front. Fill the whole thing up with mixed shrub and herbaceous border. The more plants you cram in there, the less room there is for weeds to flourish. Keep an eye on it the first few years and then the plants will fill out and leave no room for anything else. This is the perfect time of year to plant it up.

Pay a bit more for larger specimen plants if you can afford it, as they need less minding.

I would think about large hydrangeas, fatsia, choysia as backbone plants, maybe stipa gigantea and dierama for movement in the middle layer, and a swathe of something mid-height and colourful planted in a long group... Maybe echinacea. At the very front i'd put plenty of small saxifrage and possibly a prostrate rosemary.

My established borders I give a cursory weeding maybe twice a year, takes me maybe 30 minutes.

Veg and grass are the most time-intensive things you can put in a garden. Veg you have to constantly manage, replant, weed, thin etc... and it's tricky on a slope. Grass needs hours of attention every other week in the summer.

randombar

pwurple wrote: »

Gary, I'd suggest taking your garden measurements and diagram to a local good garden center (in cork, try hillside nurseries in glountaune) and ask them to advise you on a planting scheme for that area.

They can lay them all out on the ground in front of you in rows, show you which go to the back, and which to the front. Fill the whole thing up with mixed shrub and herbaceous border. The more plants you cram in there, the less room there is for weeds to flourish. Keep an eye on it the first few years and then the plants will fill out and leave no room for anything else. This is the perfect time of year to plant it up.

Pay a bit more for larger specimen plants if you can afford it, as they need less minding.

I would think about large hydrangeas, fatsia, choysia as backbone plants, maybe stipa gigantea and dierama for movement in the middle layer, and a swathe of something mid-height and colourful planted in a long group... Maybe echinacea. At the very front i'd put plenty of small saxifrage and possibly a prostrate rosemary.

My established borders I give a cursory weeding maybe twice a year, takes me maybe 30 minutes.

Veg and grass are the most time-intensive things you can put in a garden. Veg you have to constantly manage, replant, weed, thin etc... and it's tricky on a slope. Grass needs hours of attention every other week in the summer.

Thanks for that, I guess that's another way to go with the planting as I wouldn't need a fence if the planting was thick enough. How much do you think something like that would cost roughly?