Beautiful.

Thanks, Bob. It's definitely a work in progress. I was back there today in the mud, scheming....

Very pretty! We have a lot of similarity in our hills, I also have a stream and pond and very similar plants. Is that a ninebark in the top left? I just planted one and it seems to be struggling a bit on the hill, I'm hoping it will do okay once it gets established.

Thanks Jeanner. Our hills ARE similar--I actually pointed that out to my husband the other night when i first discovered this forum and came across the pics of your waterfall/pond. Yes, I've planted 3 ninebark "summer wine" and they shot right up their first year. I also planted 3 "Dart's gold" and they didn't do as well. Hopefully this year they will catch up. What kind of soil did you start with? Ours is pretty clayey. The entire hill has a layer of chicken wire underneath the topsoil--it's a pain to deal with but I leave it in place where I can to help prevent erosion while my plants are still small. Are there some plants in particular that grow especially well on your slope? I'd love to hear more about what you planted there. More pics would be great, too. ;)

I have the summer wine so it's good news to hear yours is doing well.

My house is built on a ridge so that area is what's left of the hill above the house after they leveled an area to build the house. The hill was scraped bare (and the top 5 feet of dirt was removed in some places) The people who had the house built never did anything to prevent erosion. When we moved in there were erosion trenches that were several feet deep and over 4 feet wide. The soil is a sandy clay so it erodes fairly quickly. The first year we tilled and filled and attempted to grow grass but nothing would take and the errosion trenches started to reform. One of those erosion trenches was the beginning of the stream! After the pond was put in, I started hauling truckloads (10 yards!) of mushroom compost up the hill and planting anything that I could get my hands on. After that it was another 10 yards of mulch. Most of the hill is now stabilized except for an area to the left of the pond where I plan to put in a two-tiered pond.

Originally I had mostly perennials but I am having to switch to bushes and grasses as I can no longer spend hours in the sun, so I am in sort of a "transition phase". One of my favorite bushes is a St. John's wort "Sunburst", it has a nice rounded habit and is covered in yellow blooms for several weeks. I also have fairly good look with the weigela bushes on a north facing hill so I am now trying them on this hill. Sages and salvias do very well - I stick to the rounder forms. If you deadhead they will bloom for months. Another plant that does well is flax and is a beautiful blue color. The bottoms tend to die out though so it is best mixed in with other plants.

I also have miniature rambling roses growing along one side of the stream and they do surprisingly well ....

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I have to deal with the deer who like to munch on my garden so many of the plants I have are deer "resistant" which just means they only munch them when they are desperate or taste testing.

I'll post some more pictures soon!