sage for erosion control?

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Crick22 Asheville, NC Aug 24, 2007

Has anyone used sage for erosion control? A nursery landscape person told me that it could be an inexpensive fix for my very long lawn edge that slopes fairly sharply to a ditch and is almost bare due to hard rains and erosion. I saw some beautiful tricolor sage at the nursery. The landscaper said it would be nice to do patches of different kinds of sage (different type in each patch) and perhaps some thyme also. This is clay based soil in full sun.
Anyone have any experience with this? She also said that it was hardy, not as delicate as it looks. Thanks.

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Aug 24, 2007

Sage and thyme both like good drainage, so I'm not sure about the clay soil. Out here where we don't get much rain they will do OK in clay, but in a wetter climate you may have trouble with them. Thyme is definitely a better groundcover, I've never grown the tricolor sage but I have a number of other Salvias, and while they're definitely beautiful plants, I can't picture them being a good solution for erosion.

Here's some information on groundcovers for erosion control, it's written for Virginia but your climate probably isn't too much different so things that they say would do well would probably be OK for you too.
http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/envirohort/426-609/426-609.html

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Crick22 Asheville, NC Aug 24, 2007

Thanks Ecrane3. The site you included is very good. I like many of the plants listed and yes, parts of Virginia has clay soil similar to this. (I moved from there!)
I was trying for inexpensive. Juniper, for example, could get expensive as I have about a .05 mile strip, about 5 ft wide, to cover. (or whatever half of 1/10th of a mile is!) Thanks again.

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