Bare earth bank planting

[Grendel]

A customer as recently had a earth bank installed . It's designed to act as something of a sound buffer for the adjacent road. At the moment it's just bare earth and he's asked for suggestions of what to plant on it to "pretty it up" . I'd be inclined to put grass and wild flower seeds on it and just let it wild out a bit rather than trying to keep it mown . Ideally it needs to be low maintenance and at least have some colour and i'm open to suggestions.

[ayjay]

Wild flower meadows are certainly low maintenance in that they need a trim only once a year, (remove the trimmings though) : what they do need to be successful is poor soil, in fertile soil the grasses will take over.

You can begin to overcome this by planting something like Mustard the first year, it's a greedy plant and will help reduce the fertility.

[kellys_eye]

We have this issue for a lot of banking in our garden as we had a nasty slope 'tiered' recently. We've been sourcing ground hugging cover plants and small fruiting bushes (much prefer productive plants to decorative) such as cranberry. Grassing isn't an option due to cutting issues.

I understand you can get low-growing roses too. As you can tell I'm no gardener but a stroll around the local garden centre always throws up a result.

[Someone-Else]

I would not have grass, as grass grows and will need cutting, not easy if it is on a "bank"

[Grendel]

. Whether seed is put down or not i can't help thinking that grass will start to grow there anyway. I did wonder about something like a cotonester which i think is the plant on another customer's similar bank. That does at least shade the ground to the extent that it suppresses grass and other stuff. I can't say i find it particularly attractive though. I suppose cost might be an aspect , we haven't discussed that yet. The bank is probably just shy of two metres high and around 50 metres long and has a rather tatty largely hawthorn hedge between it and the road.

[dewaltdisney]

I would look at short shrubs. The area would become covered to prevent grass and weed and if planted with thought it can be an attractive array. It would be nice to put some Lavender in as bees love it but it can get a bit thick if left.

DWD

[Grendel]

Lavender isn't a bad idea as if nothing else it's fairly cheap. I look after another couple of places about 1\2 a mile away and there are a lot of rabbits about which tend to chew or dig up young plants. There i've scattered loads of poppy seeds and bluebells which they don't seem to touch which grantedare little more than weeds in some people's eyes . Also verbascum with it's tall yellow flower stem seems to do ok although again some see that as a weed.

[kellys_eye]

We tried heather one year..... the stuff takes so long to grow that it's quickly overwhelmed unless you plant acres of it.

[London mike 61]

I couldn’t post a link but if you search ‘ rhs steep banks and slopes ‘ there is quite a lot of choice of plants on the rhs website depending on which way the slope faces .

Mike

[arco_iris]

I would look at short shrubs.

Contoneaster Horizontalis - also called Fish Bone, or Wall Contoneaster - will attract hundreds of bees at this time of year and dozens of blackbirds when the red berries appear. Deciduous, but not unattractive in winter. There are evergreen varieties.

[Grendel]

Thanks for all the suggestions , i'm going to give them a list of possibilities and let them make their minds up. They can look to see what the plants are on the internet. Anything might be better than just a bank of soil and there's not much competition in the rest of the "garden" . At the moment it's really just a small field . House on one side , a fence and conifers on another , a field of broad beans on the next and the road and bank on the last side . In the garden are a couple of mature willows a few other small shrubs , trampoline , garden furniture and a pair of goal posts.

[Grendel]

Well an update for this thread and probably one that can be filed under " i don't know why i bother" .
Went to the place late last week and can now say the bare earth bank isn't bare earth any more , it really is quite green. Have they put in any of the suggestions i mentioned to them or asked me to plant it up ? No is the answer , so now the bank is largely covered with nettles with a few docks and other weeds for variation.

[ayjay]

Nettles are good for a few Butterflies: the caterpillars of Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Painted Lady and Comma all use Nettles as their main food plant. Wildlife wins, (for now, anyway).

Painted Lady (top) and Small Tortoiseshell

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[Grendel]

True and cooked up they are decent to eat too. Chopped and mixed in water they make good fertiliser in the same way as comfrey is made into tea but i have the sneaking suspicion that wildlife , food or fertiliser aren't top of their agenda...