How to plant hedges on a rock wall or slope
Planting hedges on difficult terrain like slopes, retaining walls, and fence lines often means digging into hard rock and dealing with shallow or nonexistent soil. This makes traditional planting methods nearly impossible and leaves homeowners unsure how to establish greenery in such tight, rocky spots.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Using creeping plants to overtake the fence instead
- 2Asking a neighbor not to trim the back of their existing hedge
- 3Painting the fence black to make it less visible
- 4Removing the chain link fence entirely and using a hedge as the fence
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“That fence is a nightmare spot to put hedges, the slope and rocks will make digging a pain”source ↗
“Considering it doesn't even look like weeds are coming up, I'm not even sure there's soil there.”source ↗
“Could anyone share how much it might cost to plant hedges on the inside of this fence on top of the rock wall?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 5How to mow a sloped or uneven lawn without slipping
- 2What to plant on a steep slope to stop weeding and mowing
- 4How to fix yard erosion without a major landscaping overhaul
- 4How to start planning a large sloped yard landscaping project
- 3How to landscape a small and busy front yard
- 2Can I add soil around an old tree trunk to fix erosion?