Sloping garden, what to do with it, help please

[Digger]

Do you play golf?

[Adenauer]

Golden Guinea Charlie said:

That’s what Mrs A would really like, our two dogs as well but they‘d eat it

[Adenauer]

Adenauer said:

sinbaddio said:

Adenauer said:

That's only about 70 plants unless my maths is incorrect (which it may well be).

I shan't be doing it myself, I'll get a man in, so hopefully he'll know about the acidity etc.

400 by my calcs - 80 sq m plot (20x4), with 5 plants per sq m.

Great looking house btw!

That's more like it, I've always been rubbish at maths. So 400 plants at a fiver a pop? 2 grand, plus a bloke to plant them all and prepare the ground etc. 4 - 5 grand would seem fair, I reckon, all in. That's a lot more palatable than 45 grand.

Thanks

Just thought you guys might be interested to know that we now have the quote to cover the slope in mixed heaters etc. 12.000,00€

Now, either I'm so ancient and out of touch that I'm an idiot, but 12 grand? I'm sure it would be done very well and all that, but 12 grand, really??

Anyone want to pop over once a month and strim my hang for 50€?

[ukwill]

Adenauer said:

Just thought you guys might be interested to know that we now have the quote to cover the slope in mixed heaters etc. 12.000,00€

Now, either I'm so ancient and out of touch that I'm an idiot, but 12 grand? I'm sure it would be done very well and all that, but 12 grand, really??

Anyone want to pop over once a month and strim my hang for 50€?

12k to put some plants in the ground?

You could do that yourself surely? Even if you did it over a few weekends. Maybe just hire someone for a days consultancy to come up with a plan to follow if you need some help with the planting plan?

[wyson]

Was about to say, if that was London, someone would have put a studio flat in there and sold it for a million pounds.

[ukwill]

Maybe something more brutal but consequently much cheaper than the stepped design?

Hire a jcb and cut out the bank. Get a local landscaper to build you a single retaining wall out of hardwood sleepers. Flat area in front can be planted.

Finger in air - cost of materials would be less than 5k. Labour another 5k. If you're getting ridiculous quotes for that piece of work, consider bypassing ze Germans and outsource to another branch of Europeans.

[Adenauer]

ukwill said:

12k to put some plants in the ground?

You could do that yourself surely? Even if you did it over a few weekends. Maybe just hire someone for a days consultancy to come up with a plan to follow if you need some help with the planting plan?

There's all sorts of groundwork preparation in the quote, skimming the top 10cm off with a digger, laying mats down, preparing the earth so it has the correct acidity, etc etc. It's all gibberish to me if I'm honest, but I do find the total price quite staggering, just like the first quote of 40 odd grand to build two walls.
It's a different world over here in Germany compared to the UK, it really is.

I really don't want to be doing it myself, I'm not exactly a Titschmarsh and Mrs A has two back operations behind her, so whilst she talks a good game the reality is very different.

[mikeiow]

ukwill said:

12k to put some plants in the ground?

You could do that yourself surely? Even if you did it over a few weekends. Maybe just hire someone for a days consultancy to come up with a plan to follow if you need some help with the planting plan?

Has to be worth trying yourself, surely!

Think of it as a garden gym: your health workout. Doesn’t have to be done in a weekend. Indeed, surely the missus is in charge of plants?

We have a small steep bank at our holiday cottage, but being a ~300yr old thatch, we went this year with sprinkling some wildflower seeds. We will perhaps strim at the end of the season: it can afford to look a little shambolic rustic

[Adenauer]

mikeiow said:

ukwill said:

12k to put some plants in the ground?

You could do that yourself surely? Even if you did it over a few weekends. Maybe just hire someone for a days consultancy to come up with a plan to follow if you need some help with the planting plan?

Has to be worth trying yourself, surely!

Think of it as a garden gym: your health workout. Doesn’t have to be done in a weekend. Indeed, surely the missus is in charge of plants?

We have a small steep bank at our holiday cottage, but being a ~300yr old thatch, we went this year with sprinkling some wildflower seeds. We will perhaps strim at the end of the season: it can afford to look a little shambolic rustic

I think that's the best option.

I'm going to strim it to within an inch of its life in the spring and then buy a lorry load of wild flower seeds and go all hippy on it's arse.

[BobSaunders]

Gabion walls, back fill, and then flatten.

[ukwill]

Adenauer said:

There's all sorts of groundwork preparation in the quote, skimming the top 10cm off with a digger, laying mats down, preparing the earth so it has the correct acidity, etc etc. It's all gibberish to me if I'm honest, but I do find the total price quite staggering, just like the first quote of 40 odd grand to build two walls.
It's a different world over here in Germany compared to the UK, it really is.

I really don't want to be doing it myself, I'm not exactly a Titschmarsh and Mrs A has two back operations behind her, so whilst she talks a good game the reality is very different.

Sounds to me like someone is padding out a quote in an attempt to justify a ludicrous amount of money.

I'm pretty sure mother nature didn't bother with all that prep. I did something on a similar incline with meadow plants, from seed. Good thing about that is meadow plants *prefer* rubbish soil, so no need to do any prep work. Just kill off the existing grass then sow. Strim twice a year. I cant get over those quotes - and I thought it was ridiculous here in Surrey!

[Adenauer]

mikeiow said:

We have a small steep bank at our holiday cottage, but being a ~300yr old thatch, we went this year with sprinkling some wildflower seeds. We will perhaps strim at the end of the season: it can afford to look a little shambolic rustic

I just had a look at your cottage, lovely!

Shame it's on the Isle of Wight or we'd have booked it for a week, but the MIL lives in Portsmouth so that's too close for comfort, could you move it to Jersey please?

[Adenauer]

ukwill said:

Sounds to me like someone is padding out a quote in an attempt to justify a ludicrous amount of money.

I'm pretty sure mother nature didn't bother with all that prep. I did something on a similar incline with meadow plants, from seed. Good thing about that is meadow plants *prefer* rubbish soil, so no need to do any prep work. Just kill off the existing grass then sow. Strim twice a year. I cant get over those quotes - and I thought it was ridiculous here in Surrey!

How do we kill off the existing grass? Or would it be enough to strim it down to bare soil?

And do we then just chuck the wild flower seed down and water it?

[Silvanus]

Adenauer said:

ukwill said:

Sounds to me like someone is padding out a quote in an attempt to justify a ludicrous amount of money.

I'm pretty sure mother nature didn't bother with all that prep. I did something on a similar incline with meadow plants, from seed. Good thing about that is meadow plants *prefer* rubbish soil, so no need to do any prep work. Just kill off the existing grass then sow. Strim twice a year. I cant get over those quotes - and I thought it was ridiculous here in Surrey!

How do we kill off the existing grass? Or would it be enough to strim it down to bare soil?

And do we then just chuck the wild flower seed down and water it?

You can cover it and block out the light. If you look online there are varying methods. I did some beds using cardboard and heavy black plastic sheets.

[Far Cough]

Uber cheap option is to leave as is but get a small lightweight battery mower and just mow side to side rather than up and down.

Retaining walls and groundworks will be expensive but you get what you pay for.

[POIDH]

RE heathers and more - I have an even steeper garden. We covered the area in landscape fabric, pinned with pegs through some roofing battens. I got native heathers for £1 each from a large commercial supplier for 100 plants. I then went to local garden centre and haggled to buy another 30 heathers and heaths at a higher cost. It took my wife and I a couple of hours to lob the heathers and heaths in using scissors to cut a hole in the fabric and a trowel. We used a ladder laid against the slope to walk up it. All in all it was under £500.
The heathers really got going after 3 seasons, and we removed the fabric and battens after 5 years.

[Adenauer]

POIDH said:

RE heathers and more - I have an even steeper garden. We covered the area in landscape fabric, pinned with pegs through some roofing battens. I got native heathers for £1 each from a large commercial supplier for 100 plants. I then went to local garden centre and haggled to buy another 30 heathers and heaths at a higher cost. It took my wife and I a couple of hours to lob the heathers and heaths in using scissors to cut a hole in the fabric and a trowel. We used a ladder laid against the slope to walk up it. All in all it was under £500.
The heathers really got going after 3 seasons, and we removed the fabric and battens after 5 years.

Was the landscape fabric similar to this?

https://www.aquagart.de/unkrautvlies/unkrautschutz...

If it is I'd need two rolls of it for 80m². That's my kind of cheap.

[ukwill]

Adenauer said:

How do we kill off the existing grass? Or would it be enough to strim it down to bare soil?

And do we then just chuck the wild flower seed down and water it?

Follow something like this - https://www.wildflower.co.uk/advice/how-to-establi...

Sounds like some others have done similar. It's pretty simple and stress free.

Although I have to admit I'm going to remove ours, but thats mostly because the trees around the area are not allowing enough light through, so I'm going to have to come up with another idea for that particular bank (which will be my third attempt )

[Adenauer]

I might just cover it in that landscape fabric and paint it green

[wolfracesonic]

Do you have a shotgun? If yes, pour some wildflower seeds down the barrels and shoot them at the bank. The force should be sufficient to bury them to the correct depth: don’t forget to water them in.