"Lynda Thornton" wrote in message
news
Hi all

We have recently acquired a rather large garden with some awkward areas,
mostly very mossy lawns difficult to mow etc and we want to try and
reduce some of the lawns and make them (much) lower maintenance. One
area is a long 6-8ft deep strip on a steep slope below a line of fruit
trees, leading down to a kind of retaining wall planted with small
shrubs. My plan was to maybe bark chip this strip with some border
edging to retain the bark chip and grow some dwarf conifers and other
slow-growing non-maintenance plants through it for interest etc.
However, there is the risk that the bark chips will blow off etc making
a right mess and/or settle lower on the slope, exposing the upper area.
Someone recently suggested to us to replace the grass with low ground
cover to help hold the bank together as when the grass isn't there it
might cause problems with subsiding soil?

We are also thinking of a similar lawn-reduction in another raised area
although much less sloping, at the front of the house but below the main
lawn, out of sight behind a hedge and basically just a pain to keep
tidy. It's roughly north facing and in the shade some of the time.
There I was thinking of planting round the edges with a 3-4ft hebe (or
evergreen) type hedge with ferns below on the bottom section of the
slope and on the flatter top putting in a couple of specimen trees and
covering the rest with bark chippings. There might be the same
situation there that the chippings will need retaining and that ground
cover would also help to hold the soil together.

I'm not keen on the rose of sharon type thing or any yellow flowered
expanses, but I was thinking of maybe a periwinkle (pretty flowers,
prefer the colour) as long as it wasn't invasive and also properly
covered the ground and didn't grow upwards. Anybody got some other
ideas? Also, due to the cost of covering this amount of ground, we
might have to do a section at a time as it is a fairly large area and
just buying the plants will be pretty expensive unless somebody out
there can suggest something fantastically cost-effective!

What might be good specimen trees for north-facing, partial shade? I
was wondering about magnolia but they might not be hardy enough,
although we haven't been here for a winter yet and don't know how much
of a frost pocket we might be in (we are on a long avenue up a hill) but
lined with large mature trees, it's a very tree-y area.

How would people suggest we get rid of this amount of grass and moss - a
spray weedkiller or dig it up? I am thinking that if we dig it up it
might cause worse damage to the slopes but we need to get rid of the
grass to plant anything else as I don't want just a load of plants
dotted around in the grass which will make it even more difficult to
maintain!

Any other ideas?

Thanks!

Lynda

Bergenia cordifolia would do it in a season and be cheap especially if you
can find someone who has it (you can get dozens of plants from a single
piece!) if you are anywhere near me you can have some for free. Vinca major
would also do it but I think looks a little untidy, probably a bit late now
but raising a few dozen Geranium endressii from seed can be a quick way of
getting lots

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collection of Clematis viticella (cvs)