Continuing landscaping of slope - need new ideas, please

I decided to start a new thread to follow up on this one:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/918060/

As a quick reminder, I am attaching a picture of the "situation".

I am at a point now, where I can start planting, but here is what we have done:

1. turned over about a spade depth, putting the (dead) grass down,
2. cover with about an inch of coffee grounds - I got lots of them, have some good sources,
3. covered that with about another inch or two of a mixture of 1qf of top soil and 2 qf of soil conditioner, well mixed

I am now expecting a dump truck full of compost from the municipal facility, and that will give me another 3" of cover.

I want this to be as low maintenance as possible, not much pruning or cutting back of grasses, for instance.

I have thought of low junipers, for instance, but maybe someone has an idea how the vary heights a little. I thought of putting some taller shrub closer to the house in the lower third (with as little pruning as possible). Also , perhaps Andorra juniper would provide some variation.

Since the plants will still be small at this time, what would you suggest in terms of distance and staggering, i.e. not to or it's ok to line them up along the slope contour. And would you put something else in between for a while till they get bigger?

I do plan on putting smaller things along the steps, annuals mainly.

I know, these are many questions, but any question answered will put me on the path to a beautiful landscape, and I thank everybody so much for sharing their knowledge and experience.

C.

Here is a closer picture, from a slightly different angle. Everything you see on the picture to the left and right of the steps is now covered as described above.

Hi Clementine, you are off to a great start!

I personally would stagger, just because I like how it looks visually -- but I'm not a line 'em up like soldiers type. But really that is just personal preference.

Hi Red, thanks for replying. Of course, I agree with you, but I just thought someone might come up with some fancy idea.

So far, I have thought I should use the couple of shore junipers which were given to me, then some juniperus procumbens 'nana', and something else for more height and texture.

I'll let you know how it goes. And here is finally a picture. The dark parts are coffee ground and soil conditioner covering.

C.

look at you go ! That is alot of work, it is going to look fabulous.

If you are going to use junipers why not make a design with them? Put in some drought tolerant plants that don't take any maintenance. Sedums are really pretty and don't take any work. Dianthus is really pretty and comes in white to pink to bright red. There are many no work plants that you could mix in for texture and color.

I was planning on using several different types of junipers, by color, by height, and flowers along the steps. I'll see what I get from my wintersowing efforts. I am hoping for some white dianthus.

We had had so much rain lately that I have not been able to either work on the slope or go to the nursery, but soon, I hope, LOL.

This is going to be so beautiful. Keep us posted.

I started a project very similar to this one last year...I would have to say I had very little run off I used the fabric paper and mulched the whole entire hill. If you click on my name and check out my posts you can see pictures of half of my slope (I believe the thread says, "THANK YOU EVERYONE" ....I am tearing out the ivy and replacing it with creeping thyme this spring and I added a ton more shrubs and flowers since the picture was taken...Here are some of the plants I used on the slope I am in zone 6A. helleri, juniper, cypress, dwarf holly, dwarf mugo pines. Coreopsis, Daylilies, cornflowers, daisies, daffidoles, phlox, coral bells, and a few others.
I can't wait to see how my flowers come up this spring!! I choose plants that do not get any higher than two or three feet with the exception of a weeping cherry and a peashrub tree

Good luck!!

I looked at your pictures, rae, you had a pretty bad slope there. It sounds like you have made a lot of progress. I wonder how your creeping thyme will turn out, I am interested in that too, but I have killed a couple of them in the past year and am leery of using them again. Could you post some pictures again?
I think your slope is much bigger than mine, do you have approximate dimensions? Of course I don't know mine right now but will calculate tomorrow.

I dug just a little more today, but it is still a bit wet after the rain.

Smokey, my wintersown white dianthus are finally up, and if I ever get to go to the big nursery with my landscaper friend, I'll see if I can get some lavender and perhaps ice plants to put by the steps.

I will definitely post picturew when there is anything good to show.

C.

Well, now I have a question on this one, too...I also started a new post that has similar questions.
Did you plant your plants through the landscape paper into the soil and then put mulch over the paper and around the plants? We have several slopes to plant and someone has told us we should put the paper down, then additional soil amendment and mulch, plant the plants only into the soil amendment on top of the paper which just doesn't make sense to me.
Any advice here?
Thanks,
Jan

Doesn't make any sense at all.

I amend the ground, put down the fabric/paper, make holes for the plants and plant them, and then mulch. Some places I have planted the plants an dthen snugged & cut the landscape fabric around them and then mulched. Those were done over the course of the srping-early summer. I had bought 3 or 4' wide landscape fabric just to snug up around and between the bushes as well as the kind that unfolds to 10 or 12' for the big areas.

Trying to grow things in such a shallow-rooted manner as someone told you is going to kill them for sure.

I agree with JuneyBug, you have to cut holes for the plants.

Interesting about the landscape fabric. I would not plant on top of it, but through it, like Juney and Red are saying. I have not used landscape fabric, except at the bottom of the slope over the gravel in back of the wall. I won't plant through it either, but cover it with mulch and perhaps set a smallish container on it or on the wall in several places (I will send pictures).

I will repost pictures when I put in the creeping thyme. I do have creeping thyme growing in other places around my yard and it does fabulously.I really can't stand the ivy it's just creeping up everything! When I started my "project" I didn't initially use the fabric paper and it was a HUGE beginner's mistake I just couldn't keep up with the weeds. So I had to cut holes and slide my existing plants through. And when ever I get a new plant I cut a hole in the fabric paper and then plant.

ALL I CAN SAY IS LISTEN TO SMOKEY!!! :) She/He was a huge help to me!! As a matter of fact I think we are switching our idea from a S shaped stairs to straight stairs this spring and lining each side with lavender. Which I believe was smokey's idea last year!

I was just looking at your pic again and I was thinking if the hill is full sun? You could put a tressel in front of the porch beams and you could grow honeysuckle and train it to go up the trellis. That will provide shade and pretty flowers for your basement patio (If it is a basement patio) :) if you're planning doing mostly junipers and low plants it will give you a higher focal point during the summer and fall months.

This message was edited Apr 2, 2009 1:35 PM

This message was edited Apr 2, 2009 3:37 PM

Yeah! Smokey has the best idea ~ to use no work plantings. You want to enjoy the view, not look out on all that work to be done...

Hi all, quick progress report: We have had too much rain to be able to dig on my slope, BUT I went shopping!!!

I got eight juniperus procumbens 'nana', six juniperus conferta 'blue pacific', I got one juniperus squamata 'blue star' (because it looked so cute, but I later read that is not well adapted for the South). I got one juniperus virginiana 'grey owl' and one Chaemaecyparis pisifera 'golden mops' (this one for DH, LOL). Now I have to plant them, but as I said, it is too wet, I don't want to compact the soil.

Also, I am getting some cotoneaster salicifolius 'scarlett leader' from a neighbor, who is throwing hers out. So I am going to put 5 in all in the lowest row and will let them maybe grow over the wall a bit.

Unfortunately, I did not get any lavenders, there weren't any there, but I did get one huge pot of tthyme. Maybe I can divide it.

I am going to post a question on the soil forum about whether I can add very sandy stuff that was taken out of our pond into the planting holes.

Thanks for all your good ideas!!!

C.

Sounds beautiful! I bet you just can't wait to get it all arrainged and into the ground.
I can't even walk on some parts of my yard as they are still under water. Oh well, that just gives us more time to plan ;-)

Update: here is a picture of where I was last week. Unfortunately, someone gave me a couple of cotoneasters which I could not refuse, so they are at the bottom of the slope, three on the side you see here, and two more on the other side. Some of the pots are not going to end up precisely in the position shown, but the plants are eventually going to cover a lot of area, so I am planting them pretty far apart. The juniperus probumbens 'nana' supposedly wil get to 10' wide!!!. The j. ?? 'Blue Pacific', mostly on this picture, are going to get 5+ feet wide. Any thoughts on this?

Your slope looks great! I would have loved to put a retaining wall at the bottom of my slope but it's just too big and we have two small children to raise, the cost out weigh the benefits. To answer your question .... those white plants at the bottom of my hill are Heather white erica...they also come in pink. They are a great shrub because they are green all winter and they are the first sign of spring when they flower in April. They need full sun, 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide when they mature. At the top of my hill where you see a row of shrubs those are ilex compacta a very slow growing holly plant. They get 2' feet tall and 4' wide. They need very little maintenance and a drought tolerant. I also have

dwarf mungo pine
full sun
4x8- easy to prune to maintain a certain size

Siberian carpet cypress
full sun
2x8

Kings Gold cypress- the base is a lime colored green and the tips are yellow
full sun
4x4


For low growing flowering plants I have phlox and Arizona Sun blanket flowers (very hardy) and some others that I can't remember off the top of my head,
For plants I have daisies, echinacea (lots of varieties), black eyes, columbine, coreopsis, tulips, daffodils, star flowers, corn flowers, silver mound, autumn joy sedum, splendens sea pink, scabiosa and I am sure I am forgetting some!

This message was edited Apr 18, 2009 6:58 PM

Looks like it is going to be beautiful!

It's coming along, and I am very glad to have rae's plant list. Will post again when I have done some more.

Thanks to all.

C.

lookin' good Clementine ! You are wise to space them apart, I'm always stuffing plants to close together , and regret it down the line.