I'd consider St. John's wort, Hypericum calycinum. Tolerates heat and sun very well and is often used on slopes for stabilization. And it thrives in well drained but rather poor soils. It is semi-evergreen and can grow taller than you prefer but is best if cut back hard every late winter to keep growth in check and to avoid any issues with rust, which can be very disfiguring. On the whole, a very low maintenance, drought tolerant plant.

If you can actually get it in the ground, groundcover junipers like juniperus sargentii would love that spot. Also salt tolerant. I assume that slope gets blasted with salt during the winter

Thanks for the quick responses! I actually love junipers but I think they would be too tall here. The St. John's wort looks to be a bit taller too. And as you can tell from the tall grass in the photo, lol, I just don't have time to go out and cut things back. My priority as far as cutting things back is that darn eunonymus. Honestly every time I'm out therecutting it back and hoping not to get hit by a car, I have fantasies about killing it and saying, "oh my gosh, I'm sooo sorry! I didn't know!" to my neighbor lol.

:)

Dee

P.S GG can the St. John's wort be weed-whacked and survive? (not to the ground, obviously, but cut back using a weed whacker?) It would probably have to be done a couple times a season if it grows to a foot tall....

Yes!! But will really only require trimming back once a season....even in my climate.

btw, there are a fair number of groundcover junipers that are unlikely to exceed 6-8" in height - Blue Rug, Blue Carpet, Blue Pacific, Golden Pacific, All Gold, Motherlode........

Hmm, thanks GG. I will have to look into that and into the smaller junipers.

Thanks,

:)

Dee

The St. John's wort can be effectively and efficiently whacked back with a lawn mower but a string trimmer makes more sense on a slope :-)

My go to would be Geranium 'Karmina', low, vigorous, takes full sun, and highly weed resistant.

What about liriope. The spreading kind. If you want, I can give you some. Though I'd be mowing the 4 or so feet from the road. and keeping it grass.

I would probably try vinca minor there…. it’s low growing, has pretty blooms, is evergreen, and definitely tolerates dry conditions, so is literally no maintenance. If it tolerates a spot, it quickly forms a beautifully dense dark green cover.

Vinca minor is a shade lover!! At least partial shade. It will bleach out in full sun and will not tolerate very dry, poor soil.

The only positives about planting vinca in the OP's location is that it will struggle and therefore not be inclined to display its invasive tendencies.

Yes, I was under the impression that vinca was a shade lover as well (or at least part shade). I do think it has it's applications (a customer of mine had it in a dry shade bed in front of her house and it was lovely.

rosa, I did actually think about thyme. I haven't looked into it enough yet though. I guess I have this idea (don't know why or where this idea came from lol) that it's just not that tough or that it won't spread enough and I'd have to buy a ton. I could be totally wrong but I intend on looking into it. Oregano - oy vey. I have a patch of oregano that I kind of regret planting. It's quite aggressive and I only keep it because the bees and other pollinators adore it. But the patch I have is rather tall so I don't think it would work.

I think liriope would be too tall as well.

I have planted species tulips, winter aconite, and snowdrops and crocus here but they seem to die out.

I do like the idea of geraniums...

Thank you all! Will do some more research into all suggestions!

:)

Dee

LOL, okay, so I was just doing some looking into the junipers GG recommended above, and thought I'd look into Blue Rug juniper. Did a search, was scrolling through the "shopping" results, and this scrolled up on my screen:

I kinda think the middle one would look great on my slope!

:)

Dee

If you think Liriope would be too tall many other suggestions would be too, including the Hypericum, many geraniums and junipers.

The geranium I suggested, G. 'Karmina', is a low groundcover--maybe 6 inches tall. I'm not suggesting any geranium, just that very specific one-- highly deer resistant, dense and highly weed supressing, vigorous bur not aggressive, pretty much evergreen in zone 6 and higher, needs no attention.

Hmmm, wondering if you feel you need to cover the entire area with plants? Seems to me to be an ideal spot for a scree garden/gravel garden, with small cushions of lewisia, antennaria, armeria, aubretia, androsace, sorbus reducta, pinus mugo, junipers. There is zero interest in HOUZZ in alpines and rock gardens, yet crevice gardens have been gaining traction all over Europe (especially in the Czech republic and the Balkans). Could be a fabulous new project, Dee,

And yep, there is a definite place for certain geraniums such as sanguineum and cinereum.

Have a look at Beth Chatto's gravel gardens. The siting, topography, lighting are in your favour for a whole change in direction.

I am curious, which Sedum(s) failed in that area? Most would seem ideal for those conditions.

Right, peren.all??? That's what I thought!! I tried a few - John Creech (which I love but didn't make it), one other kind I can't remember, and kamtschaticum (both straight up kamtschaticum and weihenstephaner gold). I thought for sure the kamtschaticum would work. I have it on the other side of the driveway (my driveway cuts my property in half) and there it is doing ok - not great, but okay. I have no idea why there is a difference. The slope on the other side is SLIGHTLY less sloped, SLIGHTLY deeper soil (an inch and a half instead of an inch lol) and does get a BIT more morning shade - none of which conditions I would think would matter to sedum! But there you have it. But even there I have had to try it several times to get it to take (after the creeping phlox didn't make it!)

floral, from what I'm reading, liriope gets about 10-18 inches tall, while some of the geraniums and junipers are 6-8. Those inches make a difference. It's really quite a risky thing to pull out of this driveway - there is a street that comes out in front of the house next to me, and several people over the years have missed their turn, and decided to pull into my driveway and back out to turn around, and they've been hit by oncoming traffic. I make every single person who comes to my house turn around on the front lawn and pull out frontways - no backing out allowed! Pulling out frontways is risky enough! So I do need to put safety first.

rosa, I'm not sure about that kind of garden. I will certainly look into it, and it may work well there. Honestly I'm not wanting to do anything that requires a lot of work mainly for safety's sake - there have been times I've lost my balance out there and had to jump into the street and luckily there was no traffic. Plus I have visions of the gravel just falling into the street lol. But as I said, I am open to suggestions and will look into it!

Thanks for the continued suggestions and ongoing discussions!

:)

Dee

Not many hardy geraniums are 6 - 8 inches tall. The kinds which make good, tough ground cover such as G macrorrhizum or Rozanne are more like 1 - 2 feet. My Liriope is less than 1 foot. Actually, my personal feeling is that the bank looks fine as it is.

Regarding safety, would you be allowed to have a convex mirror on the opposite side of the road? We see them a lot here opposite driveways on winding roads.

G, 'Karmina' is smaller than G. maccrorrhizum and I.ve never seen the maccro anywhere get taller than a foot.

Perhaps my conditions suit it.

Dee that is weird! Sedum acre & sarmentosum are incredibly low growing and spread like crazy. If you or someone you know has them I think they would be well worth a try.

I've found that the Geranium × cantabrigiense hybrids like 'Biokovo' and 'Karmina' are not thrilled with hot/dry/all-day sun conditions. They can "tolerate" it, but the foliage certainly declines pretty quickly during the summer and they don't spread nearly as well as they do in more moisture-retentive soil or in a bit of afternoon shade.

I have used G. 'Karmina' in zone 6B nearly zone 7 in full sun, dry, sandy soil and now full sun in heavy clay and they've done great in both conditions. G. macrorrhizum however must have shade in at least the hottest part of the day and happiest in dappled to full shade; it's not a plant for full sun.

But why have the sedums failed? Does the area get salt in winter?