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Where to start with developing a steep garden?

FixItDuckFixItDuck Posts: 6
in Garden design
With our new house, we have inherited a large-ish, steep garden.  It falls away approximately 15 metres from boundary to boundary, so a lot of the garden is substantially downhill from the house.  There are some terraced bits, some steep ‘tellytubby’ slopes, some extremely steep parts, and an old (and large) drained pond



My previous garden was small and flat, so planning was much simpler.  All the CAD programs I’ve seen appear to be straightforward plan views, but in this garden, any spot is seen from above, below, a level view and both sides, so I’m struggling with how to start. There are a number of very mature shrubs and trees scattered around, but otherwise no planting.  

Is there a CAD program that allows 3d planning, that is accessible for a relative beginner?

And are there any gardens with this sort of terrain that I should look up for inspiration?  I’m in Kent, but don’t mind travelling, as we visit friends and family all over the UK.
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Posts

  • FixItDuckFixItDuck Posts: 6
    Terraced lawn area:


  • plant pauperplant pauper Posts: 6,904
    I think what you have is excellent. What is it that you want to change?
    Anything you plant will only be seen from above unless you make a determined effort to go down the bottom and look up. It'll look like a carpet from your terrace as you'll be looking across the top.
    You say 'new house' so I will offer you the age old advice; live with it a while before you make any drastic or even not so drastic changes.
  • FixItDuckFixItDuck Posts: 6
    Steep mid section (newly strimmed, as was overgrown with nettles, docks and thistles)
  • FixItDuckFixItDuck Posts: 6
    Old pond and woody area (also newly strimmed)

  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    A lot of coastal gardens have steep slopes - Trebah or Coleton Fishacre should you be down this way.

    I agree with PP that you have a nice framework there. Steep grass slopes are impossible to mow, so the steepest bits can have shrubs if you walk down into the garden. Or bulbs if you tend to just stand at the top and look down. 

    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • FixItDuckFixItDuck Posts: 6
    I’m trying to keep a sort of diary this year of what I like that’s here, where it feels like there are gaps (there is currently nothing flowering, anywhere in the garden, apart from a couple of pots of petunias that I put outside the window when we moved in a couple of months ago)..  

    At some point, someone has tried to create a piece of formal geometry, which, while I can see where they were going, hasn’t worked.  It’s not straight, it’s not inviting, and it doesn’t fit the feel of the space. My gardening style also isn’t precise enough to maintain a very neat, formal layout.  

    Long term, I’d like to make it so you can meander around, find places to sit, etc. Currently there are some broken straight steps down the middle, and it’s a bit of a clamber to get anywhere else.  It’s a beautiful, tranquil space, with a real oasis feel to it, so I’m thinking of pathways and “rooms” in some parts. I want to keep the lawn area open, but connect it to the rest to make it more inviting. 

    I also want to plan in some modest areas where I can cut flowers - I’m used to popping out to the garden to grab a little bunch as a thank you, or a small gift, and I can’t do that here. I also need to expand a herb garden from the current balcony pots at some point.

    The teens want to create a hangout area, which needs to be at the bottom as they want a fire pit. 

    Otherwise, it’s not so much landscaping as planting that I’m thinking of, but I lack the experience to plan it well - previously I was dictated to by the available space, which is obviously not the constraint here. 
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    I can't really help on where to start, but can hopefully help avoid a nasty accident.  Friends of ours had a similarly steep garden.  He was mowing a steep area and though wearing his spiked golf shoes would give him better grip.  Unfortunately he was right, as when he turned his foot didn't and he fell.  He tore ligaments in the ankle and knee and took months to recover from it.  In fact the knee has never fully recovered.
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    I agree with KT53, wet grass on such a steep slope can be absolutely lethal, we had a similar patch although thankfully only a small bit. Most of our garden is terraced which was expensive but well worth it to make the garden more user friendly. Initially I had four raised terraced flower beds with wide paved steps between them. On the bottom two, on top of the dwarf walls, I had rectangular paving slabs fitted so I can sit on them to weed and on the next two beds higher up, laid a path below the walls so I can stand to plant and weed at waist level.

    A few years later, we had a steep bank re-landscaped to a sleeper raised bed so again I can stand in front to weed and plant.

    You could do it bit by bit as and when finances/time/ability permit. 
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • WaterbutWaterbut Posts: 344
    I saw a gardener cut grass on a steep bank. He had a light weight hover mower with a long rope attached and lowered it and pulled it up as he stood safely at the top. This was a lot safer than the lady I saw slipping down the slope with they mower sliding down beside her. I checked to make sure she was OK.
  • plant pauperplant pauper Posts: 6,904
    I cannot count the number of times I have skidded sidey ways into my pampas grass. I had to pull myself out by means of rope, car and tow bar one one occasion and neighbours mower on another. Luckily he leaves his key in it. 
    I have now removed the pampas not because of the crashing but because of the loathing but the slope is still treacherous. I wonder what will stop me next time; the oil tank perhaps! 😳
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