Ideas for keeping soil off fence
Skinty
Posts: 4
HI Gardeners World!
Wanted a bit of advice on a project I am doing on a house I recently bought.
I want to raise a piece of ground, which is on a slope, to contain some raised beds. I will be needing to construct a retaining wall about 3 foot tall (at the bottom edge of the slope). However, on one edge of the project there is a division fence. One of the problems with this is that the fence is at an angle (cutting into my property, but I am too nice to bother the old lady next door about reclaiming the land). Therefore the retaining wall will not be a perfect rectangle.
My instinct is to build the wall (probably find some local Mexicans to pay for it) as a rectangle. However, this would leave a gap between the wall and the fence. I do not think this would be good as (1) slugs and snails would love it there and I am not sure my slow worm army could cope with the demand and (2) the gap, which would be between 0 - 2 feet wide, could be (at least somewhat) filled with soil and used for planting.
So, to cut a long story short, does anyone have any ideas how I could achieve this whilst protecting the fence? I do not know how I could keep moisture from getting into the fence as (1) a lining would not work and (2) putting a "lining" of hardcore, or something, would still lead to some localised water retention and serious effect the ability to viably grow plants in the space.
I have done some googling but not really found any good advice on this.
Sorry, I just realised how long winded this first post is!
With gratitude, Dan
Last edited: 25 August 2017 20:01:33
Posts
pictures?
Could you not just leave a 2-3ft path on the fence side?
Skinty, I have broken slabs sunk upright into the ground and part way up a slatted fence......originally done to prevent wild garlic spreading into the garden.
Hmmm... something like that could work. Firstly it would create an air cushion between soil / slab and fence and secondly would prevent much soil / moisture being against the fence whilst also allowing a good bit of soil between retaining wall and fence.
Thanks Joyce, best suggestion I've found so far