Help me with my garden

[KenBlocksPants]

Hi All,

Looking for some help / suggestiong on what to do with my garden. First of all a pic:



Quick summary is the obvious really, its very steep probably about 45 degrees. Its planted with some small shrubs in very very clayey (is that a word?) soil. There is a pretty solid retaining wall buried under the first 'step' that you can see that holds the bank up, but i'm not convinced about the stability long term.

Now the problem we are having is that we have a dog that likes to tear around the bank, generally making a mess and getting himself in a right state every time he goes out. We are also potentially planning kids.

So I want to basically find a 'nice' way of blocking the bank off from dogs / roaming kids. Then plant it up to get some good roots into the soil, covering the area and adding stability.

So any ideas? The obvious is a 3 foot fence along the top of the first 'step' and grow things on / around it. But im not sure how it will look? Another idea is to go heavy and build up the retaining wall, plaster it and paint it white and make a feature of it (maybe build in a BBQ or a seating area). This i fear might be expensive (not a great budget at the moment, maybe £1000)

Any other ideas? Should I wait and save for the long term restructure or whack a fence up? All other ideas welcome too. Need some inspiration

[russ_a]

What about building a waterfall

[RonJohnson]

Great big blocks of stone to hold back the soil, some nice shrubs in between, job done.

[KenBlocksPants]

Thanks both for your detailed suggestions

I should add that access is quite limited. Just two small entrances round the side of the house about 1.5m width. Big stones would need to be craned over the house

[Olf]

You need to dig that right back to uncover the secret nazi bunker within.

[Davel]

Hot Tub?

[Pip1968]

Personally I would cut away the soil from the tiers above and increase the size of the retaining wall at the front so that you just had two levels. If the soil is a heavy clay it should hold itself fairly well anyway. A few shrubs strategically planted should also assist.

Pip
Ps what a catastophic looking garden.

[KenBlocksPants]

Pip1968 said:

Personally I would cut away the soil from the tiers above and increase the size of the retaining wall at the front so that you just had two levels. If the soil is a heavy clay it should hold itself fairly well anyway. A few shrubs strategically planted should also assist.

Pip
Ps what a catastophic looking garden.

Thanks I think thats the route i want to go down long term depending on cost really. Anyone have any rough / ball park / heavily caveated ideas on costs?

I should point out that this bank is at the end of a decent sized garden not all of it!

[DialSquare]

Just a quick word on the dog...
With a bit of patience you could train the dog not to do that.

However, in my opinion 2 tiers would definitely look better

[Griff Boy]

What about removing the planting, create a tiered raised timber deck area and use lots of plants in big pots? Not root issues then...

[KenBlocksPants]

Well I finished the first temporary step today. Not really a long term plan, but its going to take a while to save, so £50 worth of fencing was all it took to get this up:



Sorry for the crap phone pic.

Still not 100% on the long term plan, but it solves our current problem of a roaming dog! Plan to finish with a nice rockery on the right over the coming weeks, along with further planting.

[ShiggyBiggs]

russ_a said:

What about building a waterfall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeQAtamo5u0

[Pixel Pusher]

A bit of a cop out in terms of an actual suggestion, but this might inspire?

http://www.railwaysleeper.com/Customers%20ideas,%2...

HTH