Is the fence wooden? And does the bank do what it appears to do from the picture, i.e. lean against the fence?

Hi, yes the fence is wooden (need replacing really but that’s another issue ?). It sits on top of the bank not against it.

Not surprised the bank is difficult to maintain if its covered in turf (is it?) which you have to cut.

Do you know if its just soil that makes up the bank, or is there any quantity of rock or debris within it? It just seems an odd thing to do in a garden with just soil... is the top of the bank level with next door's garden? I'm just trying to work out why its there - if that's the only thing holding up next door's garden, keeping their soil their side, I'd be rather surprised, usually there'd be something else in there to retain it.

Alternatives are restricted really - if the bank is holding up next door's garden, then to do something else with it you'd need to clear away the bank and put in a proper retaining wall - put another wall in front, say 2 or 3 feet in front, backfill with the soil from the bank and you've got something you can plant up, like a low but raised or walled bed.

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Thanks for your comments. It’s an absolute nightmare to maintain. Even when it’s cut it looks a mess, as you can see.

The bank is very rocky. Next doors garden is about a foot lower than the top of the bank, so about 2 or 3 feet higher than our lawn.

We’ve looked at the possibility of straightening the bank and building a wall in front of it, back filling and having beds. The problem is that the top undulates terribly and would either poke above the wall level, or if the wall was built to the highest level of the bank there would be nothing to backfill against. Removing entirely and building a retaining wall isn’t really an option.

We are really stuggling to think of how to make it more manageable and less unsightly.

There's certainly no simple quick solution to it - even if you took the turf off, depending what's underneath, you might not get anything to grow properly, depends on the soil content. Something like Cotoneaster Queen of Carpets would spread and root in as it does, but it takes a while; the difficulty with removing the turf is possible erosion, especially during heavy rain, prior to any planting putting out enough root material to stabilise the bank.

If the fence is yours, then you could replace it with another decent one, the bank I would then grab the bull by the horns and get rid of it as it serves no real purpose, you will feel a whole lot better for doing so, then once removed improve this area with some decent topsoil, ideas could be a mixed border, herbaceous border, raised scree beds with alpines, what about hedging? A lovely tightly clipped beech hedge in front the herbaceous border you may need to use a couple of feet of your existing lawn for the width, and in front a low growing box hedge, or a low hedge of espalier apples, another option is to put a shed or summerhouse in that far corner and use some of the above ideas, the possibilities are endless.

There'd still have to be a retaining wall, Julien - next door's garden is 2 feet higher than the lawned area in the picture - the bank presumably supports that.

Yes agree, I think he needs to deal with the boundary, find out who it belongs to then put up the retaining wall, then he can move forward and put in a lovely planting scheme.

Thanks for the comments.

I’ve measured the heights of both gardens and our neighbour is approx. 20 inches higher. However, if they wished to maintain the bank on their side it would be approx. 30 inches to “retain”. We’d go higher to maintain the boundary above ground as a normal wall, I guess. Probably taking the whole thing to a height of 50 inches.

Any ideas on approx cost of this kind of work? The length is roughly 60 feet.

Alternatively you might plant up the bank with eg campanula portenschlagiana or possibly one of the perennial evergreen geraniums. The campanula grows and spreads very densely and is covered freely in blue (or white) flowers in summer. It doesn't seem to be deterred by poor soil. Its potential spread into the lawn would be controlled by mowing.