Blackberry bushes???

Two years ago I bought a home. I have three difficult areas and now feel that I am in way over my head. Basically the "yard" consists of three levels and all three level have an issue. One side is a wetland due to a natural spring, one side is full of clay and then there is a steep hill that is about 20 feet high and 50 feet long. It is a complete nightmare. Someone mentioned to me that blackberry's will grow quickly. It is in an area that won't be used but can be seen from the road (Country setting). I want to fill the bank with something to cover the entire area, grows quickly and needs little to no care. The bank is just to steep for high maintenance. Is backberry bushes a good idea to meet my needs?

Yikes, I have been pulling them out of my wooded area. If you are not going to mow them down periodically you will soon have a briar patch to rival Br'er Rabbit's. Before working on mine I couldn't walk through them. The thorns are awful. At my other house we bushogged them down and they stayed managable. The ones in the woods can easily grow up to 8 feet tall.

There are lots of low-maintenance plants you could put in there - groundcovers from short to tall, ferns, flowers, even wildflowers. I'd just make sure whatever I put in was a perennial so you don't have to keep planting year after year.

On the wetland side, you could do a pond with aquatic plants; on the clay side, I have very hard, red clay, so I have to build raised or lasagne beds for everything I grow.

Dont even think about Blackberrys, they will be hell to try cope with after a few years AND the birds will drop the seeds all over the rest of your garden and before you know it, you will be living a nightmare, there are many other plants you could grow, expensive if you plant all at once. but as funds come, you can add to the slope, colour on the slope would be far better to look at and enjoy than a mass of bare stems from Blackberries, after a while all the thorny stems go bare as they stop light getting in, you also need plants that will hold the soil as the roots spread out into the slope or you could end up with a mud slide, go to your library and look for books on plants for hill sides or banks, they will show you pictures to set your mind thinking colour and wildlife like birds etc, you dont say what zone you have so it is hard for me to suggest any specific plants to suit, but I live with a slope and over the years you just add to it, we grow Eucalyptus/gum Rhododendrons, winter hardy Fuchsias Hydrangeas etc and none of them need looking after or cost a lot of money, we have other shrubs too and gives colour all year round if chosen right, we also planted sack loads of bulbs like Daffi's etc for spring colour, but all the roots of these shrubs help to keep the soil on the slope stable when heavy rain falls, so you need to think about that too, you dont want the soil to end up on the garden or the roadway, good luck, WeeNel.

I have a steep bank that I'm slowly landscaping (as WeeNel said, as funds permit). I've got blackeyed Susans and coneflowers so far and this year plan to start adding an ornamental grass. After lots of research, I've chosen side oats gramma because it's very drought tolerant (it will be dry on a steep slope and it would be too difficult to keep it watered) and it puts down very deep roots which will help with erosion control. It also isn't a real prolific reseeder. If you're interested, I've found an online source with reasonable prices for side oats plants.

If you don't want a real headache, don't plant blackberries. We have wild ones in Florida that birds have planted, and we have to keep pulling them out of our azaleas and everywhere else in the yard that they pop up. The thorns are terrible and you need heavy gloves to even touch them, and a thorn in your hand can cause a bad sore if you don't get it out.

Glad to see you're back, WeeNel. Did you go to Florida this year?

Thanks everyone...I am glad I asked. Turns out my "easy" plan won't be easy in the long run. I have totally changes my mind and decided that the quck fix is not best. Instead I am going to gradually add to plants slowly and transplant some of what I already have. In the mean time, I am going to throw in some cone flowers and wild flowers to make it a little more attractive this year. Thank you so much. I would have hated to lost all that money planting something that would have created more work and mess in the long run.

NatureLover1950-I would be very interested in that site. I really like the ideas I am getting. I am in zone 6 by the way. Until I looked a map, I always thought I was Zone 8. Who new :)

Hi jeank, yip just got back from Florida last week, well it's already just a memory so maybe I got back 2 weeks ago, but no matter, it was wonderful, helped to shorten our dark wet windy winters here, I spent a week on Sanibel Island, great !!!!! cycled around each day, went to the wild life parks and lazed on the white sands too, then spent 2 weeks in Naples, shops great, the botanical gardens are spreading out more now and the weather was hot, hot, hot, too hot some days, but that was unusual for spring there, watched our very first St Patrick's day parade where a lovely Irish family took us under their wings, so we had a great time all round, now back to reality, today here, we had our first sunny day, so out I went, after about ten Min's, the skies opened and we got golf ball size hailstones, sore on the head I can tell you, so took cover in front of the fire with my gardening mag, mug of coffee and dreamed about my garden looking as good as the pictures in the mag, but as I dont have a team of gardeners, dream on I say. good to here from you. Take good care. have a great season. Weenel.