Landscaping a Slope

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You have a few options for landscaping a slope, choose your best one

When landscaping a slope make it as maintenance free as possible. You'll want to put a bit of research time into this, especially if you have a very steep slope.

One of the biggest problems a slope causes is erosion; the removal of the top few inches of soil.
It can kill plants that are already there by taking away their nutrients and prevent new ones from establishing. In more severe slopes, erosion can threaten the stability of your home. In heavy rainy seasons,extreme erosions or mudslides can wash homes down hillsides.

If you own a home that has the potential of this kind of damage, be sure to have a landscaping professional to consult with.

There are a few different methods to tame a slope. First of all, unless the slope is a mere berm, don’t plant grass on it that will require mowing. It can be both difficult and dangerous to use a lawn mower on a big slope. That being said, plants and groundcovers can be excellent soil anchors.

Classy Groundcovers has a wonderful plant finding feature for planting for slopes and erosion control.They also are continually rated one of the best online gardening sites for customer service too.

The best plants to use are those with fibrous root systems that spread rapidly. It is the roots that will anchor the soil. (If it didn’t have to be mowed, grass would fit the bill perfectly).
Some of these are


Daylilies	English ivy	Fountain Grass

Bush Cinquefoil	Moss phlox	Vinca

When you are digging the planting hole, dig it so that the bottom is sloped as the hill is. If you are planting a bush or a tree though, dig the uphill side of the hole a bit deeper and pile up a bit of soil on the downhill side to brace it.
If you put a layer of landscape fabric over the dirt and hold it in place with landscaping staples before planting, you’ll add even more stability. You would cut an “x” with a utility knife in the place you are going to set your plant.

Adding a layer of mulch will finish it off and leave you with a very natural look.
If the slope is fairly big, be sure to leave yourself a path where you will be able to walk for weeding and pruning now and then.

Landscaping a slope can involve retaining walls that can be put in to shorten the slope and create a hardscape feature.
A dry stack retaining wall is just one of the walls you can build yourself but there are also wood and brick walls as well.

Let’s leave landscaping a slope and see more landscaping ideas.

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