Husband and I are stationed overseas for a few years and we are currently calling a large cabin in the woods "home" while we are here. The kicker is it is a rental, so while we are doing all we can to make it pretty, we're also realistic in that we don't want to invest largely in a property that we don't own.

The yard is basically backed up on up in a forest. It's steeeeeep. The majority of the yard we aren't touching, it can be wild! However we have two dogs and want to keep the accessible portion trimmed and nice looking. There is a "lawn" on the second level of the yard with a small stairway. On either side of the stairway are steep slopes with landscaping pavement holding the soil in tact. Other than that, it's allllll weeds. Currently to keep it trim, we have to weedwhack it while on a ladder (it doesn't feel safe...) and it's difficult!

Any suggestions for a relatively affordable way to keep this slope aesthetically pleasing but way less work? We're looking for maybe a ground cover, low profile (so I can make sure dogs aren't getting in to trouble up top). We're in zone 8b I believe.

thanks for any advice you can give! I'm new to gardening and this house has been quite a crash course!!

(first photo is what it looked like when we first moved in)

(second photo is what it looks like now, after we trim it all back)