Need Ideas For Slope Plantings

We moved to eastern TN from the north and are building our retirement home. We have a 60-80 foot long retaining wall that holds back a slope that consists mainly of crushed rocks (from basketball size down to baseball size). At our age, we do not want to have to weed wack or mow the slope. 1. What can I plant on the slope that will spread quickly, choke out weeds and be easy to maintain? 2) Will I need to put top soil over the entire slope or will some plants naturally grow and spread over rocks even if there isn't much soil? Our excavator suggested clover but I'm not fond of that idea. I appreciate any suggestions or thoughts. Thanks so much. Betty

You can make "pockets" for some plants with the rocks available and a little amended soil. Just pile up a few small rocks, dig your planting hole, add some soil and the plant. The rocks keep the soil from washing done the slope.

Here are a few suggestions, some ground cover plants and some really poor soil drought tolerant plants. all of them perennials.

Perennial Greek oregano, Lamium, Crown vetch, groundcover sedums and the other plants: Cone flowers, stonecrop sedums, globe thistle and Spanish tarragon , a member of the marigold family that reseeds freely.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/318/

http://www.tnps.org/TNPS_wildflower_book.html

The link above will take you to a free downloadable file of native Tennessee wildflowers that should give you a good idea of what to plant.

Thank you, Moonhowl, for the idea of making pockets within the slope. I hadn't thought of that. Prior to this, my gardening has been limited to relatively level areas, so quite frankly, this project intimidates me. I think I was hoping for an easy, quick solution but I realize now that it will probably take me more than this year to finish the slopes. I like the idea of using oregano and tarragon for part of the slope that is easily accessible and will try to incorporate other herbs into that area.

Thanks for the link to the Wildflowers of Tennessee, Cathy - it, too, has given me some ideas for a section of the slope. I think I'm going to try Trumpet Creeper in one area.

By the way, I found a website (thru Daves Garden) that I particularly like http://classygroundcovers.com. They have an excellent selection of groundcovers but what I like best about the site is they provide a lot of pertinent information on each plant.

Thanks to you both for your help. I appreciate it. Betty

You are most welcome Betty. And you are right, it may take a couple growing seasons to get your slope established. I would suggest you use landscape fabric or mulch to help control erosion until you get things planted.

Glad to help Betty. My daughter had a big slope behind her house that was all rutted, what a mess. We dug in some large rocks and planted behind them, sort of like the making pockets Moon suggested.

We started with a row of green shrubs at the top, then native low growing shrubs here and there down part of the hill, gradually adding native flowers nearer to the bottom. It was a lot of work, but the hill quit washing out.

She had to move for job reasons, so I haven't seen it in a while, might be fun driving past there some day to take a look.

c