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The major building works at our house are nearly done. There will be a large deck at the front west and north facing. There will be steep slopes from the deck surface to the lawn.
I'm thinking ground cover,and wildlife friendly.
Ideas, please?
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Hi Aberdeenshire Quine,
Wild flower seems to be the theme on here at the moment, you certainly wouldn't need to do too much to it when established other than maybe mow some paths into it (unless the slope is too steep?)
How big is the area that you are looking to cover? It's difficult to recommend planting unless you know what scale they need to be. Also what's the aspect of it shady or sunny?
Have you considered other options such as terracing with logs which will provide cover for wild life?
My garden blog (link below) has a few ideas about reusing logs and the like for a wild life area, might give you some other ideas to add to your planting?
Regards
As Higgy says, depends on the space available, light, soil all sorts of things but a good ground cover for shade is woodruff, also vinca (but that can be invasive, choose one of the varieties that says it isn't, and be prepared to do battle if it gets out of hand, the smaller ones can be good and pretty too), cranesbill geraniums are good doers, that spread readily, can be easily split to make more plants to fill in gaps and there are varieties that'll tolerate full sun and full shade and partial shade, cowslips are always nice on banks and if they're happy will naturalise readily, ditto primroses, aubretia of various colours can make a good show and if cannily planted can make a gorgeous patchwork of colours, of course, they've done their thing in a few weeks but still, they can look lovely if interplanted with things that flower later and a few miniature narcissii etc. muscari is another bulb that'll spread like crazy practically anywhere. Ox eye daisies are used on raodside verges and look lovely.There are roses nowadays that make good ground cover and you can, in fact, use some clematis to do the same job as will some other climbing plants. Of course, for most of these you'll need to make beds in the grass for them to establish themselves and as Higgy says, use the grassy bits as paths. Wll behaved ornamental grasses could be good, specially if you want a bit of height amongst all this low growing stuff and the seeds feed birds and of course if your soil is acid, heathers - not a favourite of mine except on wild moors but some people love 'em.All of the above will attract insects as long as you don't plant doubles. Herbs that enjoy full sun and good drainage like orgegano spread readily and bees and butterflies love it. That lot should give you some choice depending on the conditions.
Sorry not to be clear, but thanks for the answers to date.
It's effectively going to be almost a wall. The fuller story is that there's a big deck going in, and I don't want it to have a balustrade- it was shock to me to discover how much my garden slopes.- so they're putting planters (which I'll fill with herbs, along the two high bits, but there will still be a steep slope from the bottom of the planters to the base. On the long- northwest (but gets all the evening sun) side, it's maybe 3 metres long and 2 metres wide. It will be too steep to walk on by a long chalk. On the short side it's maybe 1 .5 metres long and the same width. That side faces north east. It will get no direct sunlight, but lots of ambient light. It's not overshadowed much.
Terracing's not an option and I've plenty of decaying logs in woodland round about
My local wildflower people, Scotia, have a flowering lawn mix- http://www.scotiaseeds.co.uk/ShortMix.php- which I was thinking about using
Our natural soil is a bit clay-y and just the acid side of neutral, but I'll be carting in top soil. I think not vinca- which I love- but that's given me an idea for my new terraced beds at the front. The woods are full of woodruff. I'm going to put cowslips on the driveway. Aubretia is a great idea. I also like th eidea of miniature bulbs to get some colour earlier.
I'd love more ideas, please. Off to read Higgy's blog now.
Rose of Sharon seems to thrive in awkward places and would provide ground cover for creepy-crawlies, or maybe cotoneaster, which would encourage bees when it's flowering, and birds for it's berries as well as ground cover.
A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
Yes, I wondered about a ground covering cotoneaster. Rose of Sharon, not so much. Will now investigate further