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Edging ideas for sloping garden around acer

jaspalboparaijaspalboparai Posts: 2
in Garden design
Hello everyone 
I have recently taken up gardening having bought our house and am struggling to make one area work out. We are on a hill and have slope going down the garden and also right to left. We have a beautiful acer with our right hand side neighbour where the slope is steep. There are also two drains here. I want to create a nice edging but sleepers don't look as good due to the curves. Any ideas please on what edging we should use and what design we could give it? I am also considering putting bark chippings once the area is bordered out. It would be nice to highlight the acer but not sure how to. Any ideas are much appreciated. 

Posts

  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    It would be easiest to use those sleepers but straighten out the curve. You need to put at least two sleepers on top of each other starting by the side of the bottom steps, then step the edging down to one sleeper long. The sleepers need to be secured on the reverse with vertical stakes driven into the ground and screwed to the sleepers. At the other end, turn a short length of sleeper at right angles towards the fence to make the end of the bed. Put your bark mulch over the whole bed and put a solar spotlight pointing up at the acer to highlight it.

    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    You could dig a trench and use the sleepers vertically.  By doing that, you can follow any kind of slopes you have by raising or lowering the next section as required.  Obviously, you'd need to cut the sleepers into sections to use them that way.  An example when used on complex slopes here:
    For a more rustic look you can make them random heights like this:

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • jaspalboparaijaspalboparai Posts: 2
    Lizzie27 said:
    It would be easiest to use those sleepers but straighten out the curve. You need to put at least two sleepers on top of each other starting by the side of the bottom steps, then step the edging down to one sleeper long. The sleepers need to be secured on the reverse with vertical stakes driven into the ground and screwed to the sleepers. At the other end, turn a short length of sleeper at right angles towards the fence to make the end of the bed. Put your bark mulch over the whole bed and put a solar spotlight pointing up at the acer to highlight it.

    BobTheGardener said:
    You could dig a trench and use the sleepers vertically.  By doing that, you can follow any kind of slopes you have by raising or lowering the next section as required.  Obviously, you'd need to cut the sleepers into sections to use them that way.  An example when used on complex slopes here:
    For a more rustic look you can make them random heights like this:

    Thanks a lot Lizzie27 and BobTheGardner. Those are great Ideas and I can combine them by using vertical sleepers with the bark mulch and spotlight, which should look good. 
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