Slope in garden what to do

kerdiff

Hi I have a slope in my garden beside my house, it's a b*t*ch to cut any ideas on what to do with so I dont have to cut it.

fryup

plant a bed of flowers or shrubs to cover the area

Fann Linn

Deja vu.

Snotty

I've just done this to an annoying embankment at the back of my house.
Spray it and kill all the grass, then rake it, put down that weed/fabric barrier material and cover it with tree bark. You can also do it in sections at a time if it's a large area like mine is.
I found the tree bark in Aldi/Lidl to work out cheaper than the large or ton bags from the garden center.

magicbastarder

does the bark not slide down the weed fabric?

listermint

Snotty wrote: »

I've just done this to an annoying embankment at the back of my house.
Spray it and kill all the grass, then rake it, put down that weed/fabric barrier material and cover it with tree bark. You can also do it in sections at a time if it's a large area like mine is.
I found the tree bark in Aldi/Lidl to work out cheaper than the large or ton bags from the garden center.

Never buy ton bags from a garden centre..

And aldi bags would struggle to work out cheaper than a supplier from done deal for example.

antix80

Level it
Shrubbery
Pink stones
Plant wild flowers
Herbicide
Ignore it

Snotty

listermint wrote: »

Never buy ton bags from a garden centre..

Good advice, even the garden center said they never work out cheaper

listermint wrote: »

And aldi bags would struggle to work out cheaper than a supplier from done deal for example.

Much of a much when I worked it out, the Aldi bags are handier for doing sections at a time.

Hocus Focus

listermint wrote: »

Never buy ton bags from a garden centre..

And aldi bags would struggle to work out cheaper than a supplier from done deal for example.

It's easy to work out the cost per litre of various options, and bear in mind that the ton bag does not actually contain a cubic metre. Have a look at the height of fill in any ton bag you consider.

dendof

Snotty wrote: »

I've just done this to an annoying embankment at the back of my house.
Spray it and kill all the grass, then rake it, put down that weed/fabric barrier material and cover it with tree bark. You can also do it in sections at a time if it's a large area like mine is.
I found the tree bark in Aldi/Lidl to work out cheaper than the large or ton bags from the garden center.

What would you recommend for killing the grass?

Snotty

dendof wrote: »

What would you recommend for killing the grass?

Pick up some Gallup 360, will kill all grass and weeds, then just rake it out when everything is dead.
Roundup is the same, but I've never used it.

uck51js9zml2yt

Snotty wrote: »

Pick up some Gallup 360, will kill all grass and weeds, then just rake it out when everything is dead.
Roundup is the same, but I've never used it.

My local farm supplier will only supply the above if you have a certificate of some sorts.
No over the counter sales to the general public

Snotty

Colin Big Tap-dancer wrote: »

My local farm supplier will only supply the above if you have a certificate of some sorts.
No over the counter sales to the general public

Wow, maybe that is a new regulation, I usually buy 5ltr container and it lasts for years, my current one has about 3 ltrs left and maybe 4 years old.

uck51js9zml2yt

Snotty wrote: »

Wow, maybe that is a new regulation, I usually buy 5ltr container and it lasts for years, my current one has about 3 ltrs left and maybe 4 years old.

I bought the XL type from a hardware shop in inchicore last year who posted it to me.

Lasts forever.

dendof

I picked up some Gallup Biograde 360 - had it register details.
Finally got a couple of hours window with no rain yesterday evening to spray areas.
Raining all morning again so not sure I'll see super results, but hopefully will kill some weeds (and grass) for me.

GreeBo

Depending on the size of the area, would you consider letting it go wild and throw in some wild flowers?
Looks great during summer and helps with the old bees and bio diversity.

magicbastarder

Snotty wrote: »

Spray it and kill all the grass, then rake it, put down that weed/fabric barrier material and cover it with tree bark.

i bloody well hate that weed membrane. and surely on a slope it'll have your heart broken trying to stop the bark from sliding down it?
even on the flat, the bark mulch breaks down and provides a growing medium on top of the membrane, so it's just a temporary measure.

GreeBo

magicbastarder wrote: »

i bloody well hate that weed membrane. and surely on a slope it'll have your heart broken trying to stop the bark from sliding down it?
even on the flat, the bark mulch breaks down and provides a growing medium on top of the membrane, so it's just a temporary measure.

I have a large area of weed membrane under a couple of apple trees in my back garden and the weeds are just growing directly on top of it.
no bark or anything, they just find a little dust and start growing and then they trap other dirt/dust and bobs your uncle.

Now they are much easier to pull up as they dont (typically) grow through the membrane, so thats nice.

Have a bark over membrane area in the front and it always just looks crap as the fabric appears around the edges etc.

looksee

Tree bark will not stay on weed suppressant fabric - even on level ground it blows into heaps, on a slope it will slide to the bottom.

Snotty

looksee wrote: »

Tree bark will not stay on weed suppressant fabric - even on level ground it blows into heaps, on a slope it will slide to the bottom.

Blows? What kind of bark are you using?

magicbastarder wrote: »

and surely on a slope it'll have your heart broken trying to stop the bark from sliding down it?

I though this as well, figured it wouldnt work well especially as my slope is atleaselt 50degrees, but I did a section about 5 meters long and left it for 6 months to see how it would last and it's been perfect. Once in awhile the dog will get excited and try to run up or down it and that will shift the bark, but otherwise there is no movement at all, I think the trick is to have a good couple of inch of covering. I'll take a picture and post it shortly.

Lumen

The wood chip mulch I use tends to form a stable crust and doesn't get blown around, but that's over soil.

Not really a fan of weed membrane, it's effort to get down and much more effort to get back up again, and it tends to poke its way out. I'm trying to move towards ground cover plants to outcompete weeds.

Snotty

https://i.imgur.com/0qei2Tc.jpg

looksee

Agree with you there Lumen, I came to the same conclusion. Bark mulch will stay on soil no problem, and it is gradually taken into the soil so you need to renew it at intervals, which is fine. On membrane I found that it 'moved' - blew? animals? rain? whatever, it got bald patches then the membrane started to lift and it was generally messy. On one bed I lifted it when I finally got fed up with it and discovered an absolutely solid mat of bindweed roots.

The only time it really works - and the good quality stuff is way better than the cheapest stuff - is under two or three inches of pebbles. One area was done properly with hardcore and membrane and pebbles, another area was done by a cowboy who just put pebbles onto flattened earth. And there was not much difference in the price! The non-membrane area constantly grew weeds, complete nuisance. The few weeds that grew in the membrane area were just growing in the pebbles and were very easy to pull.

Markcheese

dendof wrote: »

What would you recommend for killing the grass?

If you're putting weedblock fabric and mulch down, you won't need herbicide..

Markcheese

Barkmulch on its own works great, but you're going to need 3 ór 4 inches (and probably a herbicide or turn over the soil,) it also locks up nitrogen in top soil,
Even without the fabric underneath it'll probably migrate down the slope,
So plant first then mulch heavily, the plants will help stop the mulch slipping down the slope...
and whatever you pick, make sure it doesn't need much maintenance or pruning, you're not going to want to be going up a steep slope,

macraignil

I have a good part of the garden with sloping ground and knew straight away that lawn was not an option for the steepest sloped parts and the areas with almost no soil. I don't think weed membrane is a good option long term as I have seen it coming up to the surface and looking bad too many times and there are still weeds that will settle on the surface over time anyway so it is still going to require some regular maintenance. The first reply here which was to replace the slopped lawn area with perennial flowers and shrubs sounds the best to me and if you plant densely enough then weed membrane and mulch are not required. Here is a link to a recent video showing the steep sloped front garden where I have not used any mulch or membrane and just planted things I think would suit the environment. It's not completely maintenance free as I still go over it every few weeks to pull out the occasional weeds but the things I've planted there are vigorous enough so they don't give much space for the weeds to get going so they are only really noticeable when I go looking for them. If you are allowing yourself some time to get the project going you could order seeds for the plants you would like to see growing in the new flower bed and get them started in containers before you clear the ground and so have them growing already when it is time to plant them out. This website seems to offer a good selection and I think I will order some seeds from them myself for making a new flower bed in my own garden next year.