So I bought my first home, conveniently placed on a hill on a corner lot, and a very large portion of the hillside had been neatly covered in mulch. About a month after purchase, almost all said mulch had been washed away with the spring rains. Fast forward to today this is what I’m faced with. I’ve had multiple landscapers come by and give suggestions. I had asiatic jasmine planted on one half, which is currently overgrown with weeds(which I’ll pull about every two weeks). I’d planned on planting the other half, but it doesn’t seem to be working out too well on the first side, so I’m guessing I should be taking a different approach. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.🙏
by StreetWaste2711
18 Comments
First thought, excavated terraces perpendicular or across the slope, use perforated drainage pipe and gravel base to distribute water across the hillside. The trick is finding a great building material to hold the erosion, big stone or concrete or something… and a builder who knows enough to do it correctly. Probably need a hydro engineer to consult
Alternatively, you could try doing a permaculture farming technique, putting in swales across contour. It’s a lower cost and intensity method. Could do it with a shovel in a weekend.
Just throw a ton of wild flower seeds and let it go wild for a year while you decide.
[deleted]
Some larger border to hold the mulch. MORE Mulch. Top it with pinestraw.
Depending on budget, I’d design and bid you a retaining wall of block or boulders and regrade the bed to lessen the slope, and also add plants with some color. Wouldn’t have to be crazy tall, just enough to make it look nice.
Edit: just saw the last pic, I’d also bid you a tear out of the bushes and edging to just remove most of the bed and sod where it used to be. That looks like a bitch to maintain without a wall and regrade.
Visit your local native plant nursery and ask about what plants they would recommend for your situation. Deep roots mean stable slopes, natives require little to no care once established. Some nice ornamental grasses will do wonders for your slopes.
I hate those slanted ass yards with a passion, I have mowed a few, I would 5x price if I was ever gonna do it again customer would always say my guy quit on me.
Rocks, pretty rocks.
Regular cheap mulch easily washes away in the rain. Pine straw, no-float hardwood mulch, or rock will stay put better.
Could stabilize the slope and drainage pipe with a mix of hardscape boulders and 3″ egg rock with a variety of ornamental grasses and perennial long flowering ground covers for clay soil.
sod instead of mulch. Let the grass grow up around those plants. Might could do grass plugs as well and/or you might need some sort of landscape netting to hold the soil and sod in place until the grass takes root.
Hi,
I had this same problem along one side of my driveway. It tends to funnel all the rainwater coming downhill down that side which means all the mulch and soil gets washed away.
My solution is wildflowers. I purchased a native wildflower pack from American Meadows. I just seeded the area on the first so I’m hoping to see germination and sprouts soon.
The nice part is you shouldn’t need soil amendments or anything else. Just get to barren soil and chuck out some seeds.
Also take that water all the way down to the grass or even better all the way to the curb. You could even bury it and have it come out the very bottom. You have all the water dumping in the worst possible place right now.
Almost all your problem is right where those pipes are dumping and where the water runoff is directed right there. You could also dig a swale/ ditch at the top of where that mulch is to catch the water and direct it toward the right side of the photo toward the back of the yard at a more gradual slope. Then you could sod that ditch/swale and the water wont wash out on a lower pitch and it would help the grass from the bottom fill in there since it appears that area is getting the gutter water dumping there and the water on the ground off that hill as there is a bit of a wall/terrace that ends right where those pipes are.
Now is a great time to sod if you are going to
What zone or area are you located? Is this a full sun spot? I would maybe create a few retaining wall pockets and plant something the birds and bees would like. Salvias, rosemary, butterfly bush.
Yeah, the soil’s too loose – you need to pack it in with a roller, seed it, roll it & seed it again. It’s not a one stop shop – you have to pack that soil in hard, that’s what they do on sports fields over here if they just want grass for people to sit on or something visual to look at. You can use machine stompers as well, but you have to be prepared to use your muscles to use one. If you don’t know how to use a roller or a stomper (thumper) properly they can run away on ya, or tip over if you don’t practice with them carefully first.
You need a retaining wall
Ground cover junipers would be nice there
Rocks. Lots of little tiny rocks 🪨