What shrub to plant as natural fenceline on top of retaining wall
mjcpeterson
8 years ago
So our deck design had to be adjusted due to the location of our septic tank. Originally the stairs from our deck would lead down to the stone stairs shown in the photo below and act as a barrier to keep the kids away from the retaining wall drop off. Instead now I have a big open space that needs to be filled. I'm wondering what type of shrub I could use as a sort of natural fence to keep people (especially our children) safe from that drop off. Is there any shrub that is recommended for something like this? Maybe something fragrant, as the septic tank is right there and can sometimes have an unpleasant smell when the wind is just right. We do plan on rocking the area and having other plants in front of these shrubs. We are in zone 4b/4a (right on the line) and in the upper midwest.
Please let me know if you need anymore information or if you have any other ideas!
We would probably use the same plants on this side as well on top of this wall. A hot tub will be where the wood is shown on the ground.
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PROSelect Landscapes of Iowa
8 years agoRelated Discussions
ideas for top of retaining wall
Comments (18)wow .... i was afraid you had a 5 foot alley and JUST HAD TO USE THAT SPACE .... what a primo yard ... and what a spectacular wall ... why in the world you are fixating on that 6 inches of soil is beyond me ... be the wall .. love the wall ... kill the grass ... repaint the fence... and then move that lounger [the word is escaping me.. lol] .... and turn it with the wall to the back of your head .... and enjoy the rest of the yard ... fool around with your little planting space.. and somewhere down the line.. you will find something that works ... good luck ken PS: a lot of the plants around the yard/fence.. are planted way too close to the fence .... they should be out 3 to 5 feet .... so you have the ability to work on the fence.. and so the plants are free of it.. and also so the plants dont negatively impact the wooden fence in 5.. 10 .. 15 years ......See MoreTall Evergreen Shrub For Fenceline Privacy?
Comments (17)Privet is fast growing and will get tall, but it is a lot of work to keep under control if you want it to stay "slim and trim." It will want to grow out as well as up, so guess who will be forever clipping and coaxing it into the desired shape? :) In the tall/skinny/no pruning category...Greenspire Euonymous, Sky Pencil Holly, or Green Tower Boxwood won't get as tall as you want, and no instant gratification there either. There are plenty of big shrubs out there...Mock Orange, American Holly, etc, but again, they will naturally grow wide as well as tall. Bamboo is a nautral choice for a fast growing screen. Just keep your eye on it, because it can go wild! Have you considered just buying the tallest thuja you can? Or a more work intensive approach: you could build a simple raised bed along that fence and re-plant...it could give you 2-3 extra feet. And thinking of options like that, the "sit back and wait" approach sounds better, right? ;) This post was edited by jadie88 on Sun, Oct 20, 13 at 16:01...See Moreplanting suggestions for retaining wall
Comments (6)Symantha, Going through a blizzard here, so with spare time, I'm perusing other forums at Gardenweb and happened upon your post, and oh, how familiar it sounds! We have a retaining wall 2.5 feet high, and about 100 feet in lenght at the bottom of a 10 feet tall slope with a 45 degree angle. Above the retaining wall, we created perennial gardens 3 feet deep, and then more retaining walls in stages so it would break up the horizontal line in the visual when looking at the gardens. Your willow sounds like it might be far enough away to play with a variety of plants, and with full sun, you have a great potential. What we planted includes everything from Phlox to Rudbeckias to Echinaceas to Lilies to Echinops to butterfly bushes, etc. These are all plants that hummers and butterflies love. On the edge to cascade over the walls are; Creeping Phlox - Can take part shade, but mine are in full sun doing well. Water deeply once a week during really dry spells in the summer. Hummingbird moths love these! And they are wonderful to watch. Butterflies also enjoy them. Aubrieta (Rock Cress) - Full sun plant which is drought tolerant. I winter sowed (posting a link below in case you might like to explore this forum) a lot of these last year. Very nice. Will cascade with time. Creeping Baby's Breath - Beautiful cascader! I have white and pink. Great for butterflies! Alyssums, both Basket of Gold and Mountain Alyssum. Basket of Gold is more of a clump and Mountain is a trailing plant. Basket of Gold is my favourite with silverish leaves and the brightest yellow flowers early in the season. Tolerates dry hot sun places. If your soil is rich, you might like to try Lipstick Fragaria or Fragaria Variagata. These are members of the strawberry family, and their foliage looks great at the edge of our rock wall. The lipstick is deep green with hot pink flowers, and the variagata has white and green leaves with a white flower. I remove the spent flowers to keep them blooming all summer. If I forget one... well, the squirrel gets the berries and leaves the REAL strawberry patch alone! LOL! There are a lot of other plants out there that would be great for your area. Try to pick something which is somewhat drought/heat tolerant as the soil above these walls tends to dry out and get hotter than other ground level gardens, especially at the edge. Having said this, if you like something, try it. Nicole. Here is a link that might be useful: Winter Sowing Forum...See MoreHelp on what to plant on retaining wall
Comments (3)Sorry for the delay in answering - major computer problems. Looking at the picture, what you may want is 3 or 4 more small trees, so you get some high privacy. Then you can fill in underneath with some interesting shrubs. I'm not a big fan of arbor vitae - sometimes it seems like it's the state shrub of NJ - but even if I were, I think that 75 feet of it would feel like a prison. And it's really boring. I am also not a big fan of everything being completely balanced, with two hydrangeas on the left and two hydrangeas on the right, and so on.There are so many beautiful trees and shrubs; why should my choice be restricted to those that balance? What if one of the hydrangeas died? If it were my yard, I would look at Serviceberry (amelanchier laevis or arborea; a small native tree), one of the bigger viburnums, native or otherwise, fringetree (there are many more small trees, none of which I can remember at this moment) and for the shrubs, well, the choices are endless. If you've got kids, maybe you can stick in a pussy willow, or even if you don't have kids - it's one of my favorites. I think that's too much sun for a dogwood or redbud, but the people in the Tree forum here may have other opinions. Four feet widthwise is not a lot of room for something that will hopefully live for many years; you don't want to squeeze them lengthwise as well. Speaking from experience - please don't plant any tree with the expectation of pruning to keep it in bounds: that way lies madness. There is enough pruning with shrubs that you don't need to add on pruning your trees. Also, trees can be unforgiving if not pruned correctly; a forsythia will bounce back - a tree may not. If the low branches of a small tree will be in your way, you may want to get trees that get slightly bigger, or get some columnar trees. You got some real work ahead of you, but it will be great when it's done - have fun with it....See More
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 years agomjcpeterson
8 years agomjcpeterson
8 years ago
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
8 years ago
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5