Tricky border and rubbish soil

[puginamug]

I have a border in my garden. It's on a slight slope and separates our patio from our lawn.

The soil is quite poor quality as when the previous owners extended, the rubble was just dumped in the garden. I've spent ours digging up lumps of brick! The soil is also acidic and clay.

Everything I plant seems to die or not do very well. I did have rosemary bushes about 50cm high nearest the patio but two of those have died over the winter. There were also lavender bushes but they don't seem to do very well either.

There are two established Pieris bushes, skimmia and a heleboras, as well as some day lillies. But everything feels the wrong height and in the wrong place. I need to fill the gaps or just start again!

Questions

• can I improve the soil other than digging all the rubble out?
• what plants will work well in that soil?
• how to design the border in terms of heights. Do I put the higher plants closer to the lawn (so at the lowest point) with shorter plants at the top next to the patio, or do I try to create a border with tall plants at the top?

I have some pots on the patio too.

One more!

Have you thought of putting a raised bed in there and filling with compost and top soil.? That would also level it out. Railway sleepers would be a good choice - you could then put trailing plants in as well as adding height. A couple of acers if you don't mind there being no leaves in winter. Maybe a choisya for evergreen and interest in winter. A grass or two for wafty height.

Which way does it face? Is in in sun or shade?

Otherwise - choose stuff that you'd put in a rockery and use it like a rockery.

Raised beds are tricky as the lawn edge is curved, but we could square it off I suppose.

DH will whine though

It faces north west. So gets some sun in the afternoon but not loads.

If you're on clay the usual advice is to dig in lots of organic matter (after getting as much rubble out as you can). Here is the RHS advice.

www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=620

You can get rotted manure from a lot of stables, or buy it in sacks at the garden centre.

if it is very rocky, I would treat it as a rockery and put in plants that like that.

I have to say I wouldn't plant a choisya, they are huge!

Height wise, I woudl do tallest at the back getting smaller down to the lawn

I would think you would want tallest plants in the middle, with lower ones all round the edge, as it's a bed you see from all angles.

Which of the plants there do you actually love?

Bit of a side issue but loads of people seem to have lost Rosemary bushes this winter. Not sure why

I'm not overly keen on many of them to be honest! The pieris were all there when we moved in and we have loads of them dotted about, I think because they like the soil.

I like the rosemary and lavender. Maybe I need to replace the rosemary. the lavender never does well, I think because it's too close to the top so the soil washes away.

You could a curved raised bed. Sounds like you need to level it or put in plants that are good for slopes.

How about digging it out and the stones, levelling it and putting a higher barrier at the back of it. Bricks on their ends or something...

Improve the soil. And then the plants will stand a better chance.

Yes - I think even building the bottom up a little would make a big difference.

Would the exisiting larger plants survive if i uprooted and then replanted them?

Or even moved them to another part of the garden?

Sharpening up the border edges would make it all look a lot more intentional, I would think?

if you want to put the plants back in, then you need to put them in pots, or 'rough' plant them in another part of the garden.

if you are moving them, then prepare the new hole first before you dig them up.

Most things will survive being moved, if you dig around to get a good set of roots, replant quickly and then water in.

Right, I'm off in search of manure!

Gosh, I could have written your post, OP! We have/had almost exactly the same issue here - sloping, curved bed between a lower area of lawn and in our case a path adjacent to a patio of sorts, with huge rocks as a border 😉

We bought this property just over three years ago and the previous owners hadn't bothered with the half acre plus of garden at all and - although we had better things to do, the whole place being a renovation project - we immediately began planting 🙄

This area is close to our main entrance so fairly prominent and therefore we wanted it to look pretty. That first spring (2018) we bought loads of box balls/cones and alliums, planted them up and within a year virtually everything had died! At the end of 2019 we dug the lot out (although tbh we barely scratched the surface of the soil) and discovered the extent of builders rubble laying beneath the surface.

Ours is a 400 year old cottage - so not recent building work, lol, although a previous owner had sold the stone roof (😮😮😮) in the '90s, replacing it with slate so perhaps some of the spoil originated from then!

Anyway, we removed lots of brick, stone and other detritus and replanted with twenty-odd lavenders. Again, they all died!

This year we decided to do it properly - we've dug down to the level of the lawned area, removed a ton of (mainly) ground elder roots - the problem? and are currently in the process of sieving all the soil, mixing with well rotted manure and replacing the vast rock edging with oak sleepers. Then all fresh planting. The only things worth saving are some Solomon's Seal, a few daffodils, bluebells and day lilies. All roots will be washed off before replanting elsewhere.

I think this was the only way - starting completely from scratch and guess it'll be the same for you! If this doesn't work, I don't know what will, lol!

When ours is done I'll try to post some pics.....

And yes, we also lost a large, established rosemary bush this winter - albeit in a different part of the garden - so definitely a common occurrence ☹️

Gosh @Hebeee that does sound just like ours.

Bugger!

Yes, do post pics. I'll get digging!

Lavender wants free draining soil and really won't thrive in acidic clay, so could you use those in containers instead? And Mediterranean plants like rosemary prefer more sun - could you plant those in your front garden or in sunny window boxes instead?

I complete agree with MrsBertBibby about making the borders look more intentional with something like Everedge to enclose them. But keep the curves!

Hi @puginamug 😃

Just wondering if you'd made any progress with this? I was hoping to add some pics of ours but being very rural here the only internet I get is on my phone and I'm struggling to use the Mumsnet add pics function on that 🙄

Anyway, we've dug about half of ours out now, begun building the new raised sides, sieved the old soil, added both a bit of compost and manure (got ours from the garden centre) and purchased many of the plants!

So far we've spent in excess of £850 and I imagine the total will come in closer to £1100 😮 Hopefully it'll be worth it and apart from ongoing maintenance it will be the last time we have to tackle this part of the garden.....

Look forward to hearing how you are getting on!

@Hebeee well I bought some manure.

But then I had my Covid vaccine so everything has ground to a halt and I've spent the weekend in bed.

Next weekend!

We have clay soil which has had loads of manure compost abd sharp sand over the last 5 years! Lavender still hates it though.

In my north facing border at the moment the hellebores and heuchera are doing well.

Hope you feel better soon @puginamug 💐

If it is sloping are you losing some of the nutrients in the soil by rain washing it away?

Before enriching it I would build up one side and level the soil.

Hope it works out

Progress has been made.

I've dug out the borders as much as I can be arsed - removed huge amounts of rubble.

I've also edged the lawn.

I've also dug up the rosemary and now need something to replace it.

All suggestions welcome.