Beginner Gardening: Help this bachelor landscape his first house, please!, 1 by zenpotter

zenpotter wrote:
I have slowly been covering the sloping are of my front yard with ground cover plants. Crainsbil, sedum, coral bells, creeping phlox, pinks etc. This is a west facing hill, but with a lot of shade from a large oak. There are some kind of flowers blooming most of the growing season, but when there aren't there is enough difference in the greens to give it interest. No moving and it is showy. The best part is when it is well established virtually weed free.

When I plant on this hill I first put black plastic over the garden area for 4 -5 weeks to kill back the grass, I then take the plastic off and put in a 3-4" layer of farmpost (horse manure ground up with bedding straw). Because the hill is steep next I have a layer of burlap to hold it in place. A light layer over the burlap to hide it, slice a hole in the burlap large enough to put your plant in and tuck it back around the plant. That is the slow track.

Fast track, your hill is about as steep as my back yard where I don't need to be as worried about erosion. There I cover the grass with 5 - 6 layers of newspaper then 3-4" of farmpost and you can plant the same day. This method is surprisingly weed free as well. The newspaper smothers out the grass and weeds. Of course seeds to blow in, but they are easy to keep ahead of.