Backyard Landscaping IdeasIt is easy to end up with an ideal home set in a landscape of totally uncontrollable levels. A solution to the difficulties of a sloping site where space is limited is to build retaining walls to hold the earth back. A retaining wall will offer a strong, structural change of level and is the most suitable method of changing levels in a developed area. However, a more economic solution is to grade out the site in banks or contoured mounds. This requires more space but can result in a pleasing rolling effect, perhaps backing up rocky outcrops, or a more carved and chiseled effect.
However you decide to change levels, the major useful consideration is the stabilizing of soil on your banks to stop loose soil from washing downhill in heavy rain. Pegged turf will stabilize a bank immediately, but the gradient that you grass should be gentle in section so that your mowing machine can operate. Planting of an ornamental ground cover will also stabilize a bank, but make sure to use bold masses of individual types so as not to disrupt the flow of your ground shaping.
A gradient of 30 degrees to the horizontal is considered a reasonable gradient for a cylinder-mowing machine. A gradient of 45 degrees can be managed by a rotary type of mower and is just practicable as a planted bank once the subjects are established. When planting a bank like this, it is advisable to plant through coarse netting, which is pegged into the earth and will hold it until roots establish themselves.
Importing earth to create landscape banks can be an expensive business when you consider that shrubs require a minimum depth of 18 inches of topsoil (grass can do with as little as 3 inches however). But an advantage of molded banks is that you can hide any unwanted rubble or surpluses spoil from building operations, or the excavations from a pool, underneath them.
Any ground shaping which you intend to appear’ natural should not look like a man-made dump on the top of natural earth. Always remember to clear topsoil to one side before building the bank or mound, then rake the topsoil back over it. If the spoil, which you want to hide, is not consolidated enough it will be liable to sink.
An additional pitfall to beware is that consolidated builders' rubble will provide such an excellent drainage system that topsoil over a mound will drain and become impoverished more quickly than other areas of the garden. In addition, surplus rainwater will tend to collect in puddles at the bottom of your banks, unless you provide for this with a drain run.
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