garden redesign

hi,

this pic is a couple of years old.

i am having real trouble mantaining the grass on the slope in decent condition. I was thinking of planting several shrubs and then covering the ground with bark. Do you think this combination would look ok? I would like to plant wildlife friendly shrubs, possibily evergreen. It is very difficult to cut the grass on the slope and a lot of it is now covered by moss.

What shrubs would do ok on such an embankment?

 

Just an idea I had from looking at your photo.

Ive never gardened on a slope, but would it be possible to even out the terracing, creating a more even balance between the two terraces?

By that I mean making a flatter top terrace, moving some of the earth into the lower raised beds, making them deeper? They look large enough to take more soil.

It would mean shifting a lot of earth, but by re-shaping you could make life easier for yourself in the long run. You could keep a lawn too!

 

How about turning that sloped area of grass into a wild flower meadow area? You could sink in some stepping stones through the middle and just throw over some wold flower seeds?

I know it isn't 'neat' but could be beautiful.

Shrubs and bark would work, but I wonder if the bark would slip down over time.

I found this on the website linked below [FONT=Arial, Helvetica][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Contrary to what you may expect, your garden wildflower meadow will do better in low-fertile, perhaps wet soil, on a gradient. Why is this? So the grasses and flowers have fewer weeds to compete with.[/FONT]
[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] If the soil is very fertile, huge numbers of nettles and thistles will appear and choke the wildflowers. If the slope is on a gradient, over time a good deal of the nutrients will have been washed out of the soil. It's therefore gardening logic applied in reverse! The wildflowers will cope in this environment.[/FONT]


http://www.gardening-tools-direct.co.uk/content/04wildmeadow.htm