I have looked through much of the advice concerning this problem on this forum, but wondered if anyone has advice & experience & success with a large problem area...on a hill. My yard has a hill that is a pretty steep slope (I've fallen a few times), about 150 feet long X 15 feet deep. It is completely over-run with false strawberry, among other weeds I can't identify. I have started planting shrubs for privacy at the top of the hill (which borders a sidewalk), but every time I weed, put down newspaper & mulch around the individual shrubs, within days the weeds are back - tons of them. When the rain comes, some of the mulch slides down the hill, too. I tried pine needle mulch in a section about 6' X 6' and it seemed to stay in place. Well, all the grass died under the pine needle mulch, but the weeds grew up right through the mulch. I had to crawl up the hill & try to rake away the mulch & weed. I gave up. A professional suggested a weedkiller on the whole hill & then mulching the hillside entirely, but that was a lot of $$$. Not possible now. Lately, I have been just letting it be because it's too much to handle, and we just weed whack around everything. The shrubs seems o.k. with this, but when I try to add perennials to the hillside, they often get smothered by the weeds. With the exception of black-eyed Susan's, I have lost some perennials. Taking a small section at a time hasn't worked. The small section gets taken over by the larger section of weeds. These weeds aren't just on the hill ... it's on the rest of the lawn, too though not as bad. Big patches of false strawberry here & there with tons of dandelions & other stuff. I must tell you that my yard is the only "natural" yard in this part of our street. I am not sure that is an advantage anymore though. All the neighbors around us use lawn-care pros and have the most perfect, lush manicured lawns. In this case, the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. I don't like to use chemicals, but I am at my wits end with this. My whole purpose in planting the hillside was to avoid going up there ... as little maintenance as possible. It's not working though.

When the shrubs get bigger, with the weeds under die ? If I keep planting more shrubs & if the black-eyed Susan's spread, will they crowd out the weeds ? Or maybe the weeds won't be noticeable. I had a thought to just keep weed whacking down the weeds & forget the mulch for now. Then I thought to mulch the whole hillside someday when I have $$$. But I'd hate to spend the money & then have the false strawberry grow back. I apologize if this sounds ridiculous, but I'm trying to envision ten years or so from now & wondering how to plan accordingly.