Regular Al
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Help Landscaping back yard

Hello All,

Pictures show a difficult area: slope, erosion, two oak trees and concrete-clay soil. You can't see but there are big tree roots at the top of the hill near the house.

I took the pictures mid day. The sun gets through in the morning until early afternoon. I was thinking of doing a rock garden on the slope between the trees but need coaching. I already have some large rocks which are not in the picture. Wondering how I get anything to grow on top of soil which has turned to concrete so to speak. The only thing I can think of is to do a deck that wraps around the house and connects with the one on the right beside the house. Raleigh, NC. Thanks for any help. AL
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imafan26
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Actually I was thinking more of a shade garden. The tree roots will make it hard to put anything in the ground except a groundcover since you would only have to make small anchoring holes and the ground cover will spread on the surface. You could put potted plants so you don't have to dig the whole area. You can't really fill since the roots will just move up again.

Here we would worry about the tree undermining the foundation and especially letting the termites in. You don't really want roots near the foundation or the underground utilities and I would not keep trees so close to the house.

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rainbowgardener
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You could of course build a lot more deck, but that is a massive and expensive undertaking. The question is do you really WANT a lot more deck and what would you be using it for?

The rock garden would be nice, but in my opinion, it only works if you have good sized boulders. And it is a ton of work, not only hauling and placing the boulders, but digging them in. They only look natural if they are well buried, at least half underground. Ideally what you want is something like this:

Image

though more like this would do:
Image

A bunch of small rocks just looks cluttery.

Short of that you can do a bit of terracing. You don't have to terrace all of it and you could scatter some terraces around. But they would give you space to add some good soil and not have it slide down the hill. Sort of a raised bed but just with sides on the down hill side. Maybe a bit like this:

Image

Easier and probably cheaper than the rocks would be interlocking concrete blocks. Where I used to live, the back half of our yard was a steep hillside. I built a series of retaining walls down the hillside. Here's a couple pics:
summer hillside 2.jpg
hillside level3.jpg
The hillside was very wooded and shady, so I planted it as a native woodland shade plants garden
hillside4-10.JPG
The middle picture shows some variegated Solomon seal, a very nice shade plant. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can just see a higher level of wall in the background (top left corner of picture). So you can see I didn't make flat terraces, which would be way harder, especially where it is so steep. It is just flat right behind the walls. But it helped hold everything in place and gave me a walking path in front of the walls. Bottom picture shows Eastern red cedar, virginia bluebells, woods poppy, wild ginger. I also had trout lily, jack in the pulpit, trillium, Indian hyacinth, foam flower, white snake root, black cohosh and other stuff growing there.

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tomf
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You could nake a short wall and fill the area with soil, then plant shade plants. You could go with the deck. Make sure the tree roots do not damage you house's foundation.

Regular Al
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Wow thanks. All replies make a lot of sense.

I didn't post a pic but right near the house is where the roots and erosion is most prominent with roots totally above ground and they are main roots. LARGE.

I really like the idea of terracing and a shade rock garden and totally agree that a bunch of small rocks doesn't look great but a mixture of size. Also terracing I can probably do myself and getting more huge rocks would be expensive. I have by digging in the yard amassed 3-4 very flat but very large stones that could be used as steps to come down in some area. Perhaps across the slope gradually.

A main issue is that it is very hard fro me to push a wheel barrel or anything like that from the center of the yard to the right side where you see existing deck. There is just NO flat ground and its a pain. Another words I need a path if only to carry things that are manageable. I can take the wheel barrow around the other side of the house when necessary.

? For amending the soil for shade plants do I need to dig up as much of the earth between the trees as possible or can I simply fill in on top of existing dirt?

Will googling shade plants be enough or do I need to be more specific?

Thinking ahead:
I'm thinking terracing with natural rocks or something that can handle irregular ground. If I use manufactured rock/fake/stone I would think I might have trouble making it look right and cohesive.

Thanks for all the thoughts. I feel closer to a plan to begin when it's cooler.
Sincerely,
Al

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rainbowgardener
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For amending the soil for shade plants do I need to dig up as much of the earth between the trees as possible or can I simply fill in on top of existing dirt? That's the point of the terraces/ raised beds down the hill, that it gives you space to just add good soil on top of existing dirt and have it stay in one spot. Just break up the existing dirt with a garden fork, poking holes down into it for drainage, then put good soil on top.


Will googling shade plants be enough or do I need to be more specific? I would suggest searching on native shade plants. Natives will be much hardier and low maintenance for you and have more habitat value for birds, butterflies, etc.

I gave you some suggestions...

But you need to at least find out the pH (acidity) of your soil (you can buy a meter). Many woodland shade plants require acidic soil. Even if you are putting acidic soil on top, the roots are going to grow down into the native soil. The shade planting I showed was in alkaline soil. At times I thought I could plant acid lovers and just keep amending the soil. That works when you are growing in pots. In the ground, the amended soil is surrounded by the native soil, so whatever you do just gets cancelled out. I killed a lot of nice plants that way. :( The plants I showed and listed are ones that at least tolerate alkaline soil.

Regular Al
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Hi RBG,
Getting ready to implement your advice from this discussion this fall or maybe now if it doesn't stay too hot.
Been reading Rainer's book , "Planting in Post Wild World," and it's all making sense.
Thanks again.
Al



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