I recently removed a bunch of English Ivy, poison Ivy, sumac, and other weeds from my hillside. The roots of the English Ivy are still dying off, but come the fall I would like to plant or cover this area with something. I thought red clover, some grass seed, and black eyed Susans? Black eyed Susan's had previously self seeded in this area before it was taken over by the sumac/ivy and it was beautiful. I've had some people recommend just covering the area with paper and mulch, which I don't love. The area is very rocky, but clearly things will grow. I'm zone 6, this area is facing east.
by LossCreative1346
10 Comments
Ferns, hostas, lavender, rosemary,
US based? Go native; wood poppies, columbine, Jacobs ladder, wild ginger, mayapples… Throw in a few spice bush, maybe a goats beard.
I love sorrel, looks more like clover than actual clover does (at least to me), but it’s smaller and generally shorter. Well, shorter than red clover. It’s probably a comparable height to white clover. White clover would be good too though!
Go for plants native to your immediate area. Something with deep roots to keep the dirt on your slope from running off.
Arrowwood viburnum. Can make a good privacy screen. Beautiful white flowers for pollinators. Colorful berries later on that wildlife enjoys.
If you need a little privacy along the fence, rhododendrons are always pretty hardy. Then you can put ferns and other native plants as ground cover.
Ostrich ferns
If you don’t make sure that English Ivey is truly gone it may suffocate whatever you work hard to establish in a few years
You should plant it, but not a bad idea to get as much cardboard/newspaper and a huge ass dump of mulch (maybe 2-3) to smother out some of those weeds. What you ripped out will likely come back and even though you should be weeding somewhat in the future, I doubt you want to re do the weeding you just did.
If you smother now with mulch (you could even solarize the area after mulching with a big enough tarp for more weed killing) then plant or sow seed in late August, your plants will have some time to prep for overwintering and seeds will have time to overwinter then germinate. then in Spring you can sow more seed or add more plants! Spreads out the cost some + takes advantage of the different growing seasons so you’re not breaking your back to do everything at once. Not that this plan isn’t a lot of work lol
Well, looking at that tree, I’m guessing that bank gets maybe 3-5 hrs of sun a day, so I’d stick with plants that do well in at least partial shade. Black eyed susans and grasses are usually full sun, so you might have difficulty with them there. I’d also make sure to get rid of all the ivy cause it can be really invasive and choke everything else out.
Some suggestions:
FLOWERS:
New england aster, wild geraniums/petunias, foamflowers, columbine, new jersey tea, jacobs ladder, virginia bluebells.
LEAFY PLANTS:
Coral bells, early meadow-rue, cohosh, ferns.
SHRUBS:
Ninebark, bottlebrush buckeye, buttonbush, rhododendron, or viburnum.
You probably wanna stick with plants that have shallow roots around that boulder (unless you want to clear it off and make it a focal point), so I’d go with a nice ground cover there like violets, creeping phlox/thyme, anemones, or dwarf irises.
As far as design goes, my personal choice would be to put some shrubs along the fence or maybe bordering the sides of the bank, keep it low in the front by the road, around the mailbox, and up around the boulder. Probably some leafier plants around the base of the tree and the rest with flowers.
Whatever you do with it, it’s a very nice space and I’m sure it’ll look great. Hope I could help jumpstart the process!