On one side of my house i have a 30 foot long slope that slopes down about 4 feet. There are 3 rather large pine trees at the top. and because of soil erosion the roots are showing. What kind of ground cover can i plant on the slope that will hug onto the soil and stop the erosion. any ideas? i thought about a retaining wall too but i’m not sure.
Image taken on 2007-02-07 15:18:16 by Corey Ann.
There is an entire line of “program plants” designed to meet your needs. They are called “Stepables” and are designed to tolerate foot traffic and be planted along pathways, retaining walls, etc. Your local nursery or landscape re-wholesale yard (a Shemin or John Deere branch) should be able to source these for you. Otherwise, go to http://www.stepables.com for design suggestions, etc.
pachysandra is great. It looks good and likes to grow under trees. It grows little white flowers, but is mainly green. It grows fast so keep it under control. If you do a search on the web and type in name of plant and choose image, you will see what it looks like. I think it is less invasive than Ivy and is more attractive. You can buy it at any nursery where the perennials are.
Ground covers are wonderful and creeping phlox are really nice one but if the tree roots are showing you may need BIG time help like a retaining wall ASAP.
You could have a type of raised flower bed, going down the slope, imagine a plank of wood nailed to stakes hammered into the ground, approx 10 feet across the soil, and then repeat this down the hill, choose a ground covering plant, something which takes hold with thousands of roots, ivy spread rapidly, and has lots of roots
Creeping Phlox. Check your local nursery.