My first bank in the garden

[mutsy88]

Morning PH,

Would appreciate a bit of advise. The garden in our new house is a right mess with a combination of rotten decking, old tree stumps and uneven patchy lawn. Autumn/winter mission is to rectify this but also create something that is low maintenance.

Currently the garden slopes steadily towards the house and I'd like to level this out by creating two tiers. This will replace the rotten decking with a patio and leave a nice level lawn for the kids to run around on - see below.



My question is about the planted bank. I was planning on putting some sleepers along the bottom to give a nice crisp edge to the patio but am unsure if the bank will also need any kind of reinforcing to stop it moving, and if so what. Our soil is extremely chalky so is pretty solid and the bank will be roughly 30 degrees and waist height, filled with things like rosemary and lavender to stabilise it.

N.B. it will not be close enough to the house or any other property to be a worry, I just don't want be shovelling it off my new patio 1 week later!

[colinjy]

have you moved into the house ?

has it moved while you've been in the house ?

[mutsy88]

colinjy said:

have you moved into the house ?

has it moved while you've been in the house ?

House was built in the 70's, we've owned it since last Autumn and have never experienced any ground movement. Garden is very well drained, my only worry is we are going from a gentle continuous slope to a 'step' and whether the top half of the bank (which will be soil/chalk from levelling out the patio) will therefore be less stable than the current garden.

As mentioned, it's far enough away from the house that its not a safety worry, I just don't want to have it sliding onto the patio and then need to fix it later on as a result of not thinking it through.

[Eddieslofart]

How high will the sleepers be stacked ?

[mutsy88]

Eddieslofart said:

How high will the sleepers be stacked ?

I was hoping to only have it 1 or 2 high at the bottom, just to create a clean edge on the patio and retain any compost/loose soil that will naturally accumulate in rain etc.. I don't want to create a proper wall if I can avoid it as I'm keen to go for more of a natural bank.

[StoatInACoat]

I was going to suggest just stepping the garden with a proper wall and some steps down to patio but if you want to retain the slope then a low, brick wall is how I would do it as sleepers will rot and be more difficult to retain and work with.

[mutsy88]

StoatInACoat said:

I was going to suggest just stepping the garden with a proper wall and some steps down to patio but if you want to retain the slope then a low, brick wall is how I would do it as sleepers will rot and be more difficult to retain and work with.

Thanks that's useful advice, looking at prices there's not much difference between them for materials either. Low maintenance is the key for us as we have a young family and limited time to be keeping the garden in good condition.

[barryrs]

If you keep the bank at a maximum gradient of 1:2 then you shouldn't get any movement.

If you want a full retaining structure there are a couple of DIYable options.

Timber - http://www.mmtimber.co.uk/unilogpro
Concrete - http://www.tobermore.co.uk/professional/products/r...

[mutsy88]

barryrs said:

If you keep the bank at a maximum gradient of 1:2 then you shouldn't get any movement.

If you want a full retaining structure there are a couple of DIYable options.

Timber - http://www.mmtimber.co.uk/unilogpro
Concrete - http://www.tobermore.co.uk/professional/products/r...

marvellous! that puts my mind at ease and gives me a few options if I decide to go down that route.

[paralla]

Mis read the title but clicked through anyway.

Disapointing.

[mutsy88]

paralla said:

Mis read the title but clicked through anyway.

Disapointing.