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Hillside Gardening Landscape Design plants

Native landscaping on steep slope - Northern Virginia 7a full sun

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

I'm on the grounds committee of our neighborhoods HOA & we're looking to add some groundcover, shrubs or trees to this steep hillside. Currently its all grass that gets rutted out by the landscaping mowers because it's so steep. It would be nice to reduce the amount of grass so we don't need to send mowers up there, and add low maintenance or beneficial/native plants for pollinators & wildlife that would thrive in hard afternoon sun and enhance the look of our community. Any ideas or thoughts are appreciated!

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Yardvaark

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

For a 10 or 15' strip along the road, use a low-growing, sun tolerant groundcover, like 'Blue pacific' or 'Blue rug' juniper ... or whatever people are using and does well in your locale. Beyond the strip near the road, you could have the slope hydroseeded with Lespedeza. For shady areas you'd use a different groundcover, of course. I don't know if it's OK to use there, but my personal favorite for large scale shady areas would be English ivy. If you want to hunt specifically for natives, do some Googling for sun (or shade) groundcovers.

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Comments (8)

lisanti07028
5 years ago
Willows! There are many native willows that don't get much over 12', and the bees love them to pieces; they are also the larval food for lots of moths and butterflies. Find your native plant society website and see what they recommend. You've got a nice piece of land for natives there, and there are many natives that are lovely as well as kind to the planet.
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PRO
Dig Doug's Designs
5 years ago
Little Henry Sweetspire & dwarf Abelia work well on slopes.
RRfromR Zone7 VA
5 years ago
First, thank you for being open to natives. We moved from NoVA to Richmond and our HOA here is horrid and asking me to plant invasive plants. Second, New Jersey Tea is great for full sun area. It doesn't need a lot of water, is a host and nectar plant for butterflies, and it's excellent for combating erosion. Very pretty, too and native to VA.

Ceanothus americanus https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ceam
geraldine
4 years ago
Honeysuckle.
cecily 7A
4 years ago
Geraldine, was that meant to be a joke?
RRfromR Zone7 VA
4 years ago
Yardvaark and Geraldine, English Ivy and honeysuckle are terribly invasive in VA and on the Virginia Invasive Plant Species List. We're working on regulation to have them banned.

VA Invasive Plants

Legislation
Skip1909
4 years ago
How about something like this:

http://www.asla.org/uploadedFiles/CMS/Meetings_and_Events/2015_Annual_Meeting_Handouts/SUN-B06_Native%20Meadows%20and%20Grasslands.pdf here's a paper on the benefits and design of something like that. Hire someone who knows how to design and install it, at least for the plan.

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