Landscaping Materials

[ElasticFirecracker]

I have an area of lawn which slopes away irregularly and also dips in places. It sort of looks as though it's falling away. It has some fruit trees at the moment, and I want to add some more trees and divide it up into areas with some gentle terracing and will also be adding a path.

Does anybody have any ideas for inexpensive materials to use to retain the terracing. I don't want it to look built, and I plan to hide the retaining materials with plants.

Galvanised or or plastic corrugated lawn edging looks like just the thing, but I can only find it in 16cm height and I would need it to be about 20-30 cm high in some places.

I need something flexible so that I can create curved edges.

Does anybody know whether it's possible to get taller lawn edging or have any other ideas about what I could use. I'm going to need about 150 metres, so it can't be too costly.

Thanks

I think Hypertufa would do the trick. There is a ,”how to build a retaining wall with Hyoertufa”.possibly on YouTube or if not google. That is probAbly the cheapest way.

Thank you very much Doctordonowt. I'm very interested to learn about hypertufa and am looking into it. It's definitely something I would use in some places, but if I understand it properly I would have to buy the ingredients for hypertufa, then mix it and form it, possible creating my own mould first. Then wait for it to set.

Given the amount of retaining I need to do, I think this might be a massive amount of work, but perhaps I have misunderstood how it works.

I did not realise you were talking about a big area. I guess Gabion Baskets filed with rocks is one way. That is very expensive though. Another idea is just to put in some steps and retain the majority of the area as a slope. Then plant with things like , Lithadora, heathers, creeping Juniper, satureja, and creeping mints and thymes . If this idea appeals, then google “planting on banks and slopes”.. but choose the plants that say they prevent soil erosion.

Doctordonowt Thank you for those plant and search recommendations. I really love Lithadora.

A stepped approach was what I had been thinking of and had thought that galvanised or plastic corrugated lawn edging would be just the job to create the steps or terraces. Like this

The only problem is that the maximum height is 16.5 cm which means that the steps would be very shallow and I would need more of them. I really wanted a height of about 30 cm.

Gabion baskets would be too chunky (and too expensive).

Do you mean something like this?

Dorisday yes that's the idea, but it would be over a much bigger area with larger terraces/steps.

I don't want it to look built, so would have plants concealing whatever is used to retain the terraces/steps.

I can't quite work out what's been used in this picture.

I estimate I'll need at least 150metres of whatever I use for retaining, but it may be more when I measure it.