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Ideas for a end of garden mound?
Stu Hart
Posts: 5
Hi
We have a 200ft garden which is lawned. At the end of the garden is what can only be described as a dumping ground for years of grass cuttings, garden waste, hardcore and anything else you can dump. It's overrun with brambles, weeds, trees and woody shrubs. I've started digging the brambles and rubbish out, but have no idea what to do with the soil. It's still like a mound of old dirt, that isn't very stable. Ideally I need to put a fence up at the back but have no idea what to do with the soil...I.e flatten it, keep a slope and plant stuff etc.
Any ideas for a novice but hardworking gardener woul be much appreciated!
0
Posts
I'm with pansyface.. give it over to wildlife.
Put a pretty fence in front of the pile (keep it higher up at the bottom, so hedgehogs can get under), and keep chucking cut branches, non-seeding weeds, leave, etc behind the fence for wildlife to live in. You have your fence, and wildlife has a happy place to live.
Hi, thanks for everyone's replies. We live in the suburbs just outside of London. We have been digging out the huge brambles as they were getting dangerous when our family and friends kids visited. The weeds etc were totally out of control and impacting a nearby apple tree, so we thought it was best to clear and make something nice of it. So far I have dug out about half of the rubbish and lots of random concrete slabs (basically the front part of the slope).
I'm really looking for some inspirational ideas of what we can do with it. One option was to flatten it and plant some new shrubs, trees etc or possibly leave it as a mini mound and plant things in it.
Some pics of the area are below as well as pics of our whole garden. The fourth pic is what we have dug out of the area so far! Basically we have been digging up all of the rubbish from when we moved in!
Thanks
Stu
Ack.. so much grass.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with it. Wisley has some areas that are long narrow walled in areas like that. If you're in that neck of the woods, take a look around.
get some tatties in
When it's cleared, what about putting in some ferns, create a stumpers, make use of all old twigs and branches.
or install a pond, great for wildlife.
What about putting in some fruit trees or soft fruit bushes?
Sorry for my lack of knowledge but what is a stumper? Is that where you make a visual out of old trees and twigs? Wouldn't this open it up to be overgrown by brambles, weeds etc. again?
I quite like the idea of fruit trees as I have a couple of apple trees already. Would it be best to flatten it first?
Thanks for everyone's comments and suggestions so far.
Hi Stu. Haven't fully read all the posts so apologies if I've missed anything. We had a similar issue at my last house with a corner of the front garden next to the lawn. We had a lot of other priorities but it was an eyesore so we cleared the rubbish and planted some shrubs - rhodies mainly as they're happy here. There was only a thin layer of soil over the dumped rubble etc so we chose things that would survive after a good start with extra compost and some blood, fish and bone added. It will have blended in quite well to the surrounding hedge and trees by now I think.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...