Hello there

We're in the process of building our house and I've been thinking down
the line to the gardens landscaping. Our site from front to back falls
away in the last 1/3 of the site. With that in mind I'm planning to
have the patio area at the back of the site at a different level to
the lawn at the front (in the order of 1 metre difference). Trying to
do things differently, I'd thought of using "gabion baskets" (Wire
mesh baskets filled with rock) to support this drop in levels,
possibly with a decorative stone on the open face of the basket
(facing into the patio)

The concerns I have are....
Will it stand the test of time? (weeds, sag,)
How do I terminate the lawn as the garden drops into the patio? Flower
bed on top of the baskets?

Any opinions and advice would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Sean

I am new to gardening, so I won't pretend to be able to answer the lawn
question, but as a geotechnical (soil) expert I can tell you that a gabion
basket wall will last as long as the quality of its foundation. If you
excavate the foundation to a strong, well-drained soil layer and level it
fairly well, the basket wall will last a lifetime.

"Sean" wrote in message
om...
Hello there

We're in the process of building our house and I've been thinking down
the line to the gardens landscaping. Our site from front to back falls
away in the last 1/3 of the site. With that in mind I'm planning to
have the patio area at the back of the site at a different level to
the lawn at the front (in the order of 1 metre difference). Trying to
do things differently, I'd thought of using "gabion baskets" (Wire
mesh baskets filled with rock) to support this drop in levels,
possibly with a decorative stone on the open face of the basket
(facing into the patio)

The concerns I have are....
Will it stand the test of time? (weeds, sag,)
How do I terminate the lawn as the garden drops into the patio? Flower
bed on top of the baskets?

Any opinions and advice would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Sean

"Stoph" in :

How do I terminate the lawn as the garden drops into the patio? Flower
bed on top of the baskets?

try grit and scree loving plants. small plants that don't develop large
woody roots, of course. you might want ot wrap a layer of filter fabric
over the top of the rock, to provide separation for the layer of finer
aggregate for the grit loving plants.

interesting idea, you shouldn't have drainage problems that some retainig
walls do!