Hello All,

I am in the process of planning a raised garden behind my new house. The raised area is around 6m long and 7m wide ending in a tall embankment. Half of it gets strong sunshine till around 14:00h during the summer and is then in the shade. The other half, including the embankment, remains exposed to sunshine till late in the evening during the summer months.

I will be building walls to raise the area to be able to walk out of the French windows at the back of my house. I need to backfill and then put top soil to a height of 1.2m. I have several questions

a. How much top soil, i.e. depth, should I put in. By and large what we will have there will be a mixture of herbs, leek, cabbages, carrots etc. Some flowers a couple of apple trees and perhaps a cherry tree.

b. What do I need to know about the type of top soil to use - I live in Luxembourg. We get around 900mm of rain per year and the soil is very well drained.

c. How can I put the embankment to good use - it rises to a height of around 12m at an angle of around 25° (quite steep) and is currently covered in brambles and the like

I'd much appreciate any help