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Problem With a Wall and a Fence

AlexAlnwickAlexAlnwick Posts: 2
in Problem solving
I live in a relatively new house on a sloping site and as you can see, the back garden has a wall between us and the next house. At the top of the wall is the separating fence. This has left a channel at the top of the wall (about 30cm wide and 20cm deep). A couple or 3 times a year I have to get up there and pull out the grass and weeds that grow.

Any suggestions on how to remedy this would be appreciated.


Posts

  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 970
    You could mulch it with pea gravel or bark, a good depth of 5cm should help reduce any weeds. It won’t prevent all, but hopefully less and easy to pull out. The alternative would be to plant it up with something you like which can output compete the weeds and make them less noticeable. The depth might be challenge though
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • Joyce GoldenlilyJoyce Goldenlily Posts: 2,933
    It depends on the situation.
    Who owns the fence. Maintainence. It is going to rot and need replacing. It ought to be painted with preservative at some time so access.
    What sort of soil is the fence built on. That will dictate what could be planted there.
    Are there gardens on the other side of the fence. Potential trees/shrubs etc might be planted and come up on your side
    .
    My first reaction was to fill the gap with cement or spray regularly with weed killer.

    Housing developers rarely think in the future, just the immediate finished look. If there are properties on the other side of the fence you may have house owners asking permission to come into your garden to reach your side of their fence.
  • BluejaywayBluejayway Posts: 392
    If there's enough planting depth then a row of erigeron could look very pretty
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    Weeds need a medium to grow in.  Remove that and they won't return.  A lot of soil should come outwith the grass roots.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    My first thought was to fill it with cement. Bark would fly out in the wind and birds would peck it out.

    How keen a gardener are you? Does it get sun? If so you could fill it with gritty earth or compost and fill it with alpines, like thyme, aubretia, iberis, thrift, house leeks etc.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    You could lay down some kind of a membrane, I think roof felt would be quite good as it will not fly around in the wind. I wouldn't cover with gravel, as this is just somewhere for weeds to germinate and neighbours may not want it trickling under their fence (whereas they probably won't notice a strip of roofing felt neatly cut to fit the gap).
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • AlexAlnwickAlexAlnwick Posts: 2
    Thanks all for your suggestions.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    I don’t understand about the chanel on top of your wall,  I can only see a gap between wall and fence.
    I think the roofing felt would be a good idea,  maybe a few heavy stones to hold it down.

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    If the neighbour's ground level is the top of the wall and they have lawn up to the fence, there will always be grass coming through/under. I'm forever pulling up grass along the fence lines from the neighbours' lawns both sides.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
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