"John Towill" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 10:51:49 GMT, Sally Thompson wrote:

On 15 Nov 2003 11:09:58 -0800, (Stephen
Ward) wrote:

I am thinking of using Gabions to retain a 12 ft bank approx 8o ft in
long and situated on the North side of may property. Any advise on in
planting would be appreciated. I would hope that the Gabions would be
a better option then a brick wall and after a couple of year will be
covered by plants of one sort or another.

Steve
We thought of this quite seriously to control a steep bank (but later
went another route). I've seen them planted up with ivies of various
sorts to quite good effect.

I also had a very high bank to "retain". Cormaic suggested gambions but
as
the job was too big for me I had a large landscaper in, he did it by using
vertical girders set in concrete with railway sleepers forming the walls.
It looked good and as the resulting wall was south facing it is ideal for
growing trained fruit bushes up.
Sadly Cormaic (I should have known) was right and the walls are now bowing
very badly, and the landscaper keeps promising to come to fix it, how
exactly I can't imagine, and as he has not turned up yet I suspect that he
does not either. :-(

Why would gabions have been better?

Franz