If you cover it with compost, then any annual should do - Pansies, Cosmos, Marigolds etc. Annuals tend to have weak roots, so should not damage any brickwork.

Might be easier and safer to put a container on top of it. Do you need access to the drain at any time?

Hi joa

I've got two bloomin great big man whole covers in my garden, one in the lawn and one in a small patio.

Mine need to be keep available incase the drains get blocked. The one in the lawn has a bird bath on top and is disguised by the grass around it. The one in the patio has loose shale on it with a planter on top. That had to be lifted a few years ago when a neighbours toddler flushed a packet of bottom whipes down the loo, so it was just as well we didn't slab over it.

Happy gardening.

It's really not a good idea to totally hide manhole covers. When you need to find it, you REALLY need to find it. Hiding it with an object that can be moved if the drains need rodding is the best option. Don't use a planter that's too big to shift, or you'll be emptying it when the loo's backing up..........

I have a large mock verdigris plastic urn on mine and fill it with bedding plants, bulbs etc. Its easy to move - has to be as its over the septic tank in the lawn. In a flower bed you could make a feature of it - imagine it with large flowered fuchsias for instance.

Cotoneaster Queen of Carpets is quite good - only 2 inches high, roots as it spreads, but will grow over the manhole cover and can be lifted back, or cut off if you need to access the manhole - it won't root into the cover, obviously, or the brickwork surround.

I have one in my back garden, it's in a really central position and i bought some sedum matting to cover it.

You buy it in smallish sections and just butt them together, they sit directly onto the metal and can be lifted quickly and easily at any given time.
Just lay them and forget about them forever more :-)))

You'd never ever know there was a big ugly cover there ! Perfect :-)))

That sounds interesting Louise... Is this the stuff designed for green roofs?

Yes it is Mg.
I bought it about 4 years ago and it looks as good as the day i laid it.
It was quite expensive but it has been superb value for money.

The marketing of it shows it being used for vertical and horizontal purposes and it's such versatile stuff that you can think right outside the box with it !!!

I saw the advert for it in a Gardeners World magazine but i'm sure googling would give some links too :-)

Writing as one who has had to rod drains uphill and downhill to find the manhole cover that some "bright spark" had buried decades earlier, then planted a hydrangea on, burying your manhole covers is not a good idea. When you've got drains leaking "nasty stuff" you need to know where all the access points are so that they can be rodded.

I would seriously advise you to just pop a planter on top of it - and not too heavy a planter, either!

I would still advise the sedum matting.

It's the very easiest and most sensible solution.

What gives the most natural coverage/look/appearance and the quickest, easiest and lightest of removal ?
There is nothing to beat it.