Hello all

We are thinking of changing a rather useless flat-topped bank covered
with grass and moss - at the moment it's just a regular load of work
trying to mow it and keep the weeds at bay. It's beyond our main garden
hedge so we don't even see it from the house, it is between the road and
the hedge at the front, which is north-facing. It's quite large though,
it must be 15 feet deep and 40-odd feet long, split into 2 uneven sized
areas by a single-flag path leading up to our garden gate. It tapers at
one end, almost coming to a point but there is still a large area to
fill with something, preferably not troublesome grass, moss and weeds
etc!

What we want to do is to put in a laurel hedge, just one plant deep all
around the top edge. We would grow that to about 5ft and keep it that
height for ease of trimming. However that leaves quite a large expanse
of grass which we are having ideas about including rotovating, covering
with weed suppressing membrane and planting ground cover through plus a
few specimen trees, but the latest idea we've had is to actually use
some of the area for growing culinary plants.

As it is north-facing and fairly wet soil, on the acid side, the only
things we could think of immediately were rhubarb or maybe leeks,
although leeks would create more work of course and we are trying to cut
down on the maintenance chores! The other possibility that occurred was
globe artichoke - is it tough enough to withstand that kind of site?
There will be some shelter as we would grow the laurel hedge a bit first
and there is a retaining wall and very high beech hedge on the other
side.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Lynda

In article , Lynda Thornton
writes


As it is north-facing and fairly wet soil, on the acid side, the only
things we could think of immediately were rhubarb or maybe leeks,
although leeks would create more work of course and we are trying to cut
down on the maintenance chores! The other possibility that occurred was
globe artichoke - is it tough enough to withstand that kind of site?

Doesn't it want more sun?

Jerusalem artichoke would be fine. Potatoes? - mine grow well enough in
shade.
Blackberries?
Gooseberries even better - they seem to thrive in shade.
Wild strawberries - they like shady hedgerows.


--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"