Roadside verge

MacDanger

Hi

Looking for advice on what to do with a verge either side of a private roadway. It's 1-1.5m wide both sides of the road, bounded by a hawthorn hedge on the right and a drain on the left which has some trees & bushes growing wild in it.

It's currently a lawn (albeit overgrown as per the photo) but mowing it regularly is too much for my father. I was thinking about removing the grass and planting heather with a view to it providing ground cover and stopping it from looking too neglected.

Any ideas apart from heather?

Jim_Hodge

Heather needs tending to keep it right. Most things will encroach in the drive way. Why not just make it a wildflower verge?

MacDanger

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

Heather needs tending to keep it right. Most things will encroach in the drive way. Why not just make it a wildflower verge?

A decent wildflower verge needs tending to as well, more than something like heather I'd have thought

standardg60

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

Heather needs tending to keep it right. Most things will encroach in the drive way. Why not just make it a wildflower verge?

+1
Just leave it alone, trying to cultivate it is just going to make more work for your father.

Jim_Hodge

MacDanger wrote: »

A decent wildflower verge needs tending to as well, more than something like heather I'd have thought

Not at all. It could be mown once a year or just left to it's own devices.

Heathers need early Spring trimming, get woody and will spill over on to the driveway. They also look drab for much of the year.

If you want maintenance free then pave it.

punisher5112

If it was made suitable for a robo mower that could be an option.

MacDanger

Thanks for the advice but wildflowers aren't in the running here!! No point in suggesting them

Does heather need annual trimming?

MacDanger

punisher5112 wrote: »

If it was made suitable for a robo mower that could be an option.

The drop off into the drain on the right would make it unsuitable I'd imagine

Jim_Hodge

MacDanger wrote: »

Thanks for the advice but wildflowers aren't in the running here!! No point in suggesting them

Does heather need annual trimming?

In early spring (before any buds have set) you shear off the top third of foliage growth from your heathers, removing any remaining dead flowers from the previous year as you do so. You remove old stems to encourage new growth, maintain a bushy habit and prevent them from becoming thin and woody. They need watering for the first two or three years. Honestly, grass is much less maintenance for that length of drive.

It's just a road verge, cut it for him once a year.

phormium

Heathers would take ages too to cover in the area and you would either have weeding around them or have to put down barrier with bark/gravel. They don't grow that fast and do need trimming every year to get the best out of them.

I think the grass is the handiest even if he just lets it grow high.

looksee

Given the cost of organising and purchasing heathers, and the subsequent care that the border would need would it not be more economical to have someone with a ride on mower mow it as necessary? Once a week for about 4 months of the year and gradually less at other times. Look for a garden maintenance service and let them get on with it.

punisher5112

Another option is stone, put a drain in, cover in stone and spray weeds when needed.

tromtipp

It's beautiful semi natural grassland, providing a wildlife corridor, helping control the water levels in the soil, buffering carbon. Why in the name of all that's holy would you spray it with herbicide, leaving you with ugly dead grass and causing toxins to leach into the drain and the wider ecosystem?

Get someone in to cut it down once a year if you have to, improve the species diversity with some extra dandelions and buttercups, and enjoy nature.

phormium

I do think it looks kind of pretty as it is , country type lane and all that! The only bit that would get to me is the grass in the middle, now that I would kill!

murt101

It looks lovely & natural just as it is, leave it be.

CelticRambler

MacDanger wrote: »

It's currently a lawn (albeit overgrown as per the photo) but mowing it regularly is too much for my father. I was thinking about removing the grass and planting heather with a view to it providing ground cover and stopping it from looking too neglected.

That "neglected" look has been the most common version of the roadside verges in France for the last five years or more, usually accompanied by a sign explaining that they are being deliberately left un-cut for the sake of the environment (also help's the council's budget :rolleyes: ).

Whereas before they'd have been razed to the ground by a guy on a tractor once every couple of months (in the growing season), now they'll get a tidy-up cut at the end of the year, and nothing more than metre-wide strip along the edge of the tarmac (mostly to show road markings and keep milestones visible). It's been great watching these rather dull, manicured grassy strips gradually evolve into really colourful decorative borders in just a few years.

looksee

The same thing has been happening here, and I really like the look of them. To someone like the OP's father who has always been used to seeing 'tidy' as the ideal though it does require a bit of a mind-set change. I am trying to achieve the fine balance between having my rural verge natural(ish) and the locally preferred strimmed and mowed tight.

tromtipp

The idea of a little sign saying 'left unmown as wildlife habitat' has been being encouraged for Tidy Towns groups for decades, and works well for getting acceptance. Also at getting points for the TT groups.

CelticRambler

looksee wrote: »

The same thing has been happening here, and I really like the look of them. To someone like the OP's father who has always been used to seeing 'tidy' as the ideal though it does require a bit of a mind-set change. I am trying to achieve the fine balance between having my rural verge natural(ish) and the locally preferred strimmed and mowed tight.

Yeah, I will admit to having had a twinge of hypocrisy when writing the previous post, as only yesterday I took the strimmer to the (council-owned) metre-high grass on the far side of the lane and thinking "that looks so much tidier now!"

But that was just so I could have a better view of the bramble hedge behind ... oh, and also the grass isn't really supposed to be growing on that tarmacked section! :pac:

MacDanger

phormium wrote: »

I do think it looks kind of pretty as it is , country type lane and all that! The only bit that would get to me is the grass in the middle, now that I would kill!

That's the bit he likes!!

MacDanger

Folks, thanks for all the replies but as I said earlier, the wildflower option has already been proposed and rejected long before I came here!! He's already providing much more area than most for the pollinators and this isn't going to be one of them.

Unless there are any other suggestions, I'm going to try a few heather on a small section of it and see how they get on for a year or two. Is it okay to plant them this time of year? I believe there are winter & summer flowering heather, right?

looksee

You need reasonably acid soil for summer flowering heathers. Winter flowering are not fussy but they will not have any flower in the summer.

Jim_Hodge

MacDanger wrote: »

Folks, thanks for all the replies but as I said earlier, the wildflower option has already been proposed and rejected long before I came here!! He's already providing much more area than most for the pollinators and this isn't going to be one of them.

Unless there are any other suggestions, I'm going to try a few heather on a small section of it and see how they get on for a year or two. Is it okay to plant them this time of year? I believe there are winter & summer flowering heather, right?

Pot grown can be planted any time.

You'll see nothing from them in two years though and they'll need tending and weeding in that time. You'll need about 5 per sq metre.

phormium

If you're hell bent on putting heathers you would really need to put down weed membrane and something on top of it or in no time at all the weeds/grass will just fill in the gaps between them unless you are seriously dedicated to maintaining them.

I had a garden to do that had a verge full of grass something like that but it was actually on top/behind a side wall, it was cleared off totally, top soil added and loads of plants put in, many of a spreading type and only now maybe 5 yrs later is it starting to close in sufficiently to keep out weeds but I still regularly have to pull grass especially and some weeds. Luckily it's waist high so easier to do. I actually laid cut strips of carpet between the plants when they were planted to try and keep down some of the growth between them, as they have matured with less gaps between them I put down gravel over what strips were left. I put heather in another part of the garden but again with carpet and gravel between them, they are down since last year and still pretty small, could buy more mature ones to start with but more expensive obviously.

_Brian

First suggestion is leave it wild.

Second would be wildflowers


But, other than that I’d winder about getting vinca major and similar in there. They should outcompete the grass and provide some colour too. Much less maintenance than heathers.

Hocus Focus

Just strim it in April and October, like any roadside verge. You could even engage the contractor who cuts the hedges and verges for the council to come in and do it when he's doing the road outside