Hillside Landscaping
We’re also assuming that this isn’t a cliff-side but rather a steep slope that is a problem for some reason.
The kind of question I normally get with this one is what can I do that doesn’t involve weeding or mowing and doesn’t cost anything but gives a wonderful looking hillside landscaping look.
The honest answer is that you can have two out of three. :-)
So without further wordiness, here’s what you need to know.
What do you use it for?
If you have no plans to use this other than it’s current fallow state then that determines your hillside landscaping plans. For example, if you want to garden on it, then that sets up several other options.
You can carve level, hillside pathways out of the hill and berm up the upper edges of the paths to create narrow terraces. This would be a relatively low-cost solution because it involves you, a shovel and some form of retaining wall to hold the soil level.
Or you can create wide terraces with higher retailing walls to give you a series of flat sections on the way down the hill. This involves more resources because the increased amount of excavation is going to be machine-done and then you have taller walls to build. Taller walls involve more money and more skill level to ensure they don’t fall down.
If you don’t use it - never want to use it but somebody sees it - then you have to create something a little nicer out there. See below.
If you don’t want to use it - and nobody sees it then you have other options - see below.
First Question
But the first question is really what you want to use this space for in your property - what kind of sloping or hillside landscaping adventures are you willing and able to afford?
Do You Really Want a Slope?
I covered this above with the notion of terraces versus non-terraces. You can eliminate the slope with a bit of work or a lot of money depending on the property in questions and what you intend to do with it.
Can you mow it?
Frankly, if you can mow it, this will solve a great many problems. I have a slope that I can not mow across the hill without having a serious chance of turning my tractor upside-down (never a good move). So I mow it up and down the slope. I have the advantage of a 4-wheel drive tractor to claw its way up and down but without that, that area would have been planted.
Mowing is the least labor-intensive way to keep a slope neat and tidy. It has to be done regularly but it is mechanized while other options involve hand-pulling of weeds etc.
How Large Is It
This is one of the determining factors in my own yard. The slope extends almost all the way across the backyard and I use the bottom of the yard regularly (it’s the access to the waterfront) so I have to do something with this space. It’s too big to plant into a garden unless I want to spend all day weeding,
This hillside landscaping option is to leave it in turf. If it were much smaller, then I’d have more options.
Is money a problem?
I can hear you chuckling right now. Of course it’s a problem.
Terracing is going to be the most expensive of options but it’s going to give you useable space on that hillside - places to put patio furniture, decorative fountains, sitting nooks and the kinds of gardens that have plants dripping over rock walls. Some of the most gorgeous gardens I’ve seen have been constructed on steep hillside but there was a sizeable investment in landscaping to be done before the garden could be built.
Some hillside landscaping resources recommend a less -expensive alternative and that is to install ground covers. If you’re looking for a ground cover to take over from the grass here’s an unpleasant fact of life.
Ground covers take a heck of a lot of work as well while being established. They will NOT kill weeds that are in the bed. They actually work by stopping weed seeds from germinating by shading them out. Grass that invades from the edges will not be stopped by ground covers and your choice is to control this grass or have a worse looking mess once the grass and ground cover start fighting it out (grass wins almost every time).
Do you want to maintain it?
Pave it. Maintain it. Plant it. Or move.
Sorry but that’s the reality. Ya just can’t change Mother Nature and she’s intent on invading and making it weedy before she turns it back to a forest.
Pave it - see terracing above
Maintain it - mow it
Plant it And there’s one option.
Turn it back to a forest by planting trees all over it. Tall trees such as Maple and Oak that shade out opposition. Dense leaved Evergreens that ensure that nothing else will live in their shadows.
Plant ornamental grasses that will be allowed to fight it out for space while you mow pathways through it in an attempt to convince the neighbors it is a garden. Can be lovely but hard to control at the edges of your neighbors.
Plants such as Vinca minor are the shade equivalent of.
Taller spiky plants such as Hemerocallis disguise invading grass but eventually you wind up with a grassy mess.
Shrubs are an option. Plant the shrubs, lay a cloth weed fabric and mulch on top of it to make it look decent but understand that “gravity sucks” so the mulch will tend to move downhilll with rainstorms.
Plant spreading ground cover thugs such as Crown Vetch that will spread, be ugly but hold the ground in this space and you decide if you need to weed or simply allow it to go to waste area. See above for my thought on ground covers and hillside landscaping option.
Move? Well, you’re on your own there.
Those are all the hillside landscaping options I can come up with at the moment. My bottom line is that grass may not be ideal but it’s the least expensive and almost the least amount of work.
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