Ideas for ugly wall

[retainingwall]

Moved into a new house a few months ago and there's an ugly retaining wall which holds the next level up of the garden. It's made of concrete blocks and isn't very attractive!

I've been clearing it as it had lots of rubbish etc in front of it (still more clearing to go!) but am not sure what to do with the wall. I don't really want to render it as it will need regular painting otherwise. I had thought about sleepers but think they'll rot. Want to have a vegetable patch at the bottom so not sure about growing plants up it....

Does anyone have any tips or ideas on what I could do? Thx in advance

I'd probably grow something up it. But if you don't want to do that, I wonder if you could grow something down it from the upper layer?

Yes I was just wondering if you could put troughs on top of have plants trailing down? How stable is the wall?

A perfect opportunity to create a living wall. All those gaps can be planted up.

https://www.gardeningetc.com/advice/plants-for-retaining-walls

You’ll only have to paint it about every seven years, and it’s pretty small ( I could probably do it in an hour with a big roller and I’m old). Render and paint ( you could paint some artificial greenery on…..) Off white will reflect light and heat, good for your veggies.
Beware of what you plant in the gaps, big plants could pull it down or at least destabilise it.

Actually, I would be cautious about render, those holes may facilitate drainage. Just paint it.

Bamboo screening fence in front of it?

I'd do a living wall. Plant lots of things in the gaps. Ferns, campanula, violas, ajuga even strawberries would work.

It looks like it's a bit curvy. Is it?

I like the idea of a green wall but realistically you are still going to see the very ugly breezeblocks in bits. I would probably put something like this https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.exterieur-creatif.fr%2Fupload%2Fgaleries%2Fgalerie1%2Fmaxi%2Fdsc00012.-093057.JPG&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=33c833eac2417df58888fbead2b2532f31851997a918b5f012134eb7d3635a3f&ipo=images

in front of it. If you made the gaps bigger or put a few holes here and there you could still have some plants peeking out, but I think it would look much nicer. It's quite easy to install, just put a few vertical woods and then screw the horizontal slats. Trickier if there's a curve though.

Could you plant a small evergreen hedge in front of it? Box or something similar.

Alternatively if it’s shady you could grow an evergreen climbing hydrangea up it. Either Hydrangea seemannii and Hydrangea serratifolia.

For a sunny location you could a step over fruit tree in front of it. Like this

Ugly wall?

I really like it 😳Sorry, I think its really cool.

I'd definitely go for a living wall. Ferns and campanula will do really well. Campanula just latch anywhere and get on with life. What about Chinese Jasmine climbing up the wall?

Thanks I'm loving all these ideas! It is South facing and in full sun (if sunny) all day and gets pretty hot! This is actually one part of the wall - it's curvy and is probably about 10-12m long.

The house is v old grade II listed cottage and is surrounded by lovely old red brick walls. If this wall was in a modern property with modern garden it would be pretty cool but as it's all old with cobble paths etc, it doesn't really go, hence why I want to do something to it.

I'm wondering if I could put raspberries in front of some of it and then maybe have some plants trailing down. It's got steps down through the middle of the wall so is essentially two lengths of wall so might grow things on one and maybe do something different at the other end eg wood / render where it gets super hot if it's sunny.

Defo a living wall and that wall of @SerenityNowInsanityLater is wonderful to behold. Well done. Looks fab.

It is South facing and in full sun (if sunny) all day and gets pretty hot!
How about hiding the wall behind large, evergreen herbs eg rosemary, sage, bay, etc. The bed is quite deep so you could have herbs at the back and vegetables at the front with an access path separating the two.

The herbs may not be tall enough to totally obscure the wall so you could also do trailing from above (as per PP) or some climber (e.g. clematis with feet in the shade [of the herbs] and flowers in the sun).

Grow a grape vine or short espalier fruit tree like peach or apricot along it and attach with ties? If it is a warm wall, you might get a decent crop.

If you don't like the colour of the wall, paint it with natural yoghurt and it will be colonised by lichens and mosses in no time..