So we have this really annoying hill in our yard with nothing on it except a bunch of weeds. It’s super steep and the middle part (the darker bit) is dirt, but incredibly hard and solid and not necessarily something we could easily dig into. Is there anything we can possibly put/plant here that would take over the hill? We don’t currently have the option of dong some sort of retaining wall up there. We’re in zone 10a in Southern California and I’ve tried to do some research but damn is it overwhelming 😂
by Fine-Teaching-6395
50 Comments
I’d just throw a bunch of CA poppy seeds up there! They reseed easy and bloom for much of the year.
Cactus and succulent garden! Low maintenance low water
Rose garden not much maintenance
A diy water fall feature would look really nice. Make it small with plants around it.
Fabric and hardscape. Neat design with rocks or what not. Leaf blowing is all the maintenance you need.
Check out [this resource](https://www.laspilitas.com/garden/howto/slope.html) on native California plants for slope stabilization.
FYI, we’re past the end of the appropriate planting season for natives (Halloween to Valentine’s Day), so I recommend making a plan for next fall.
You can also check with r/ceanothus for CA-specific recommendations and visit [Calscape.org](http://Calscape.org) for nursery locations, ideas, and a plant database.
Whatever native groundcover you use, I’d personally add woodchip mulch for moisture retention and weed suppression, and I’d add a live oak seedling in the center to eventually provide some shade.
Looks like it was made for pumpkins. Make a soil mound at top, plant pumpkin starters or seeds. Then run a soaker house up the fence line to the mound. Youll be able to water from the base of the hill with zero work. The pumpkin vines will run down hill and absolutely cover that corner until September or so.
Youll cover the area quick and its so fun to grow! Beware, once you start growing pumpkins, you’ll become obsessed with the gourds.
Put a slide on it. So kids can have fun.
What a focal point! I would love this project, so much potential to be a stunning sight
Annoying! It’s a dream. Wait until the fall and seed with native low growing flowering ground cover. You’ll have a visual interest point and it’ll attract butterflies and other beautiful things.
Wow! Is that annoying.
That area is made for bushes or a large tree. Or a clump of smaller trees. Anything but emptiness. That would drive me nuts. Or maybe a billboard painted to look like the French Riviera or the Alps. Or an enormous fountain.
Perfect for waterfall. But I don’t know how sustainable it will be in California.
Could you terrace it?
Bamboo or creeping thyme
This screams tiny village to me
Avocado would do great depending how close to the fence that is. You could also get a couple lavender plants, some natives and a couple blue fescues in there. Pumpkins or watermelons would thrive there too. There’s a lot of options
Fkkk the things I could do with that corner 🫦
I would look on marketplace for free rocks. Build a few terraces/retaining walls to flatten the slope a bit. Will require some additional topsoil to flatten. Mulch and shrubs though maybe just mulch if watering is not possible.
Find a native plant sub for socal and get some serious answers
Dig it out and continue the retaining wall and do something awesome like one of those big ass Edward scissor hands topiaries
Native shrubs and one tree in the middle of
I tried to send you a pic of what I cane up with- peony top middle and yellow rose bush each side and tulips in the front. Hosta abode tulips and some sort of ground cover around the rest.
This actually awesome cuz you don’t have to worry as much about plant height. Plant native
Terrace it and put in irrigation – great place to grow veggies. Or, terrace it and put in a tree to provide shade for perenials with a recycling stream/fountain. Let your imagination fly.
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Big huge golden statue of Baal. Or as the other guy said, a nice cactus and succulent garden with flowers for hummingbirds and bees….
I’m not sure about that corner, but can’t decide if you have artificial turf or if that is grass? 🤔
calscape.org, search for plants that specialize in erosion control/bank stabilization. There’s hundreds of natives that could handle this and in fact you could just purchase a warm season slope control mix from theodore payne and go from there.
Why do you have holes in it btw? Those shouldn’t be left like that.
Do you think you could fit 56 cypress tree in there?
buckwheat
It’s screaming for trees.
Native perennials
Grow real weeds
Make a mountain out of this hill. This is a perfect place for as many cypress trees as you can fit.
Yeah i don’t like that. It make my brain hurty
Oh beauty! I would drop in a terrace, some trailing mosses and extravagant spiky grasses, and build myself a book-reading corner.
A creek style waterfall would look super awesome there. Surrounded by some nice natives. There’s tons of plants you can grow on that hill. You mentioned “take over” so you could look into native ground covers.
Dynamite
Turn it into a cemetery
Is that hill naturally there, or did someone build it up for privacy?
Dammed that’s ugly. Well it would be perfect for a waterfall feature. Long Koi pond in the front silently pumping water up the hill to a series of waterfalls amid a few select plants. Ok add a little miniature village and a railroad track.
I have a crazy hill as part of my yard (9b) and we put in lantana, myoporum, agave, lavender, salvia, coastal daisies, dusty miller, and smoke tree. It’s drought tolerant, low maintenance, and looks great. Maybe consider some of those for yours?
We also have some bougainvillea out there, which are beautiful, but the thorns are no joke.
Look on the bright side – the real annoying part of the hill is in your neighbors yard.
Avocado tree!!!
Buy an RC rock crawler
Yeah I hate it, put a Buddha statue there.
Citrus or other fruit tree in the middle with bougainvillea on either side
Definitely plant a huge tree there or at least a big old cactus, depending on where you live. I would not be looking at that FENCE. No disrespect, but I grew up with a hill in my backyard that my dad purchased a house on something similar to this, and I definitely hated it. I would put something big there so you don’t even have to see that peak of that white fence. Besides, I would also paint that fence brown or something so it’s not so noticeable about the Hill.
A Water feature would look great there with a few plants around it. The sound is very relaxing.
I see a long winding path for the Gnomes to carry their Fairy sacrifices up to the cauldron and volcano at the top.