Good ground cover for hill erosion? (Harrisburg: Home Depot, garden, residential)

[gg]

Originally Posted by tranceFusion

The driveway isn't crumbling.. it's concrete. But it's definitely going to crack or start to tilt in a couple of years if the dirt keeps washing away as the dirt from below will be carried away. A retaining wall would probably be best but not really in my budget at this point.

I see people that have various types of low-growing evergreens planted on their hillsides. Does anyone know what any of those are called? I'm not very knowledgeable about plants at this point..

I would look at Periwinkle. The low lying evergreens are Junipers and I am not really a fan. They are okay, but seem to look worse over the years and not better. Periwinkle seems to work well. You can also scatter some other plantings in there like boxwoods and/or ornamental grass if you get enough sun. Don't plant grass unless you want to mow. Planting a hillside is one of those things that you have to do and let grow and maintain for a few years until it takes well. Unless you want to spend more money and plant more and bigger plants to fill in fast. It is all about how much money is in the budget. Ivy works pretty well. I wouldn't worry about the rodent thing much. Nothing wrong with chipmunks and squirrels running about. Goodness, they need places to live.

Remember when planting a hillside as high as a plant grows, generally speaking they will have a larger root system which holds a hill in place. If erosion is a real problem, you might want to go higher and bigger and not just low lying plantings.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by tranceFusion

The driveway isn't crumbling.. it's concrete. But it's definitely going to crack or start to tilt in a couple of years if the dirt keeps washing away as the dirt from below will be carried away. A retaining wall would probably be best but not really in my budget at this point.

I see people that have various types of low-growing evergreens planted on their hillsides. Does anyone know what any of those are called? I'm not very knowledgeable about plants at this point..

Evergreens would be too slow growing for your needs.

[fleetiebelle]

I like euonymus, myself. Some of the varieties have attractive variegated leaves.

[Kippy]

What about thyme? Maybe something like this: Thymus 'Pink Chintz' - Flat of 32 plants

[greg42]

Low-growing evergreen is typically juniper as mentioned. Blue rug juniper actually does grow fairly fast (maybe only fast for an evergreen, heh), but I agree they don't age well. Half my life ago I worked in a garden center; we used to sell a ton of those back then. (I can distinctly remember the time we unloaded 500 of the things off a semi delivery.) I also don't think they would hold the hill as tightly as some other plants that mound and spread. Blue rug and similar low-growing juniper does spread out, but it doesn't continue to fill in roots. Having more roots is what is going to hold the hill in place better I would think.

IMO you really do want to look for something that roots tightly, which is not necessarily true of everything that otherwise makes a nice low ground cover. I'm no expert, just thinking through how it works.

Also the less you drive/park on that side of the driveway, the less it will be damaged. (Of course doesn't help much if it's only one car wide.)

[Clint.]

Good question! It's something I ponder occasionally myself.

You might need to do a little excavating and stabilization if the erosion is already threatening your driveway. Once you get it squared then many of the vegetation suggestions would probably work, although you might consider a small wall as well depending on the situation.

We have periwinkle like Hopes suggested growing randomly in some places around the yard and it's pretty; it seems delicate. It doesn't seem to have especially fibrous or deep roots, but I may not be remembering the right plant.

I'd like to give a stern talking to to the previous owner of our house who thought English Ivy would make a nice ground cover...it's practically an invasive weed. One of these days I really intend to tear it up (hence occasional pondering of a replacement). As it is, I need to regularly tromp along a ridiculously steep hill to keep it from taking over the neighbor's ridiculously steep hill, which sort of defeats the purpose of a low maintenance cover for a steep hill. Also, at some point it took over a tree. Moral: if you plant it, be prepared to treat it like grass, i.e., cut it back regularly and watch for runners.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by Brookline_sylvia

Also, at some point it took over a tree.

Good point. Also, kudzu sometimes hides in ivy. I'm not sure if kudzu has arrived in Pittsburgh yet, but it's moving north and has been spotted in in New York, so if it's not a concern now it will be. Talk about something that will rapidly swallow trees. Check out this photo--it's an example of kudzu having completely swallowed a house!

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[tranceFusion]

I was thinking evergreens because I don't think anything that dies out in the winter is ideal, especially since most of the erosion seems to be occurring during ice/thaw winter cycles and the heavy spring rains. I do have periwinkle elsewhere but it doesn't seems that hardy or dense to me, honestly..

I think there is another low-lying evergreen (other than juniper) but I can't figure out the name of it...

[North Beach Person]

Kudzu shouldn't be able to survive Pittsburgh winters. How about a meadow mix on the slope?

[greg42]

There are some vines that are evergreen. Periwinkle I think is referring to the same thing I keep hearing called vinca, a spreading and rooting flowering vine that is evergreen. Have some at my house. It's pretty hardy in my experience, although mine has a decent amount of its main structure in the shade, which I think helps. Does spread but it's not super fast and I wouldn't think it would stabilize a hillside much.

There may be other things related to juniper that are low-lying, but something that spreads alone just helps it cover faster. It won't do much to make the hill more stable.

Nothing's going to hold the dirt in place well on a slope unless it is completely rooted over the whole thing. Even then, I doubt you're buying much time. I mean, you're asking a plant to do the work of a wall; as far as I know there is no such thing. I think grass or similar that will root tightly across the whole surface is going to come closest, should prevent the loosest dirt from leaving up at the top which may buy a little time.

If you want ground cover you can get the juniper or whatever other evergreen but that isn't the same as trying to prevent erosion. Ground cover just covers the hillside.

Dormant grass is not the same as it dying and coming free. Dormant grass will still hold in place just fine over the winter. The biggest problem with grass is it will take a while to establish well enough to hold and during that time you need to run a lot of water on it (although same with other plants). And if in the shade the grass options are more limited.

You might want to see if there's some kind of not-plant barrier or something you can put down over the slopethat would help. Then you could potentially plant whatever you like over it (or through it, with small holes, or whatever, depending upon what the material is). I don't know if such a thing could exist, but maybe.