I have this area between my neighbor's house and mine. As you can see it's hard to keep anything alive and when we get rain like we did this past week the mud flows off the slope and effs everything up.
I need a ground cover than can grow in heavy shade and can take light foot traffic and spreads quickly.
The only other option I suppose is to build up the soil with a retaining wall level with the bottom of my neighbor's house.
by photonsintime
3 Comments
Hey howdy hey! I have a similar spot and enjoyed success with Turks Cap. It doesn’t mind shade and can handle a drenching
Prepare yourself for an onslaught of frogfruit-related comments — it really would be a good thing to have here
Can you quantify “deep shade” in terms of hours (of direct sunlight)? When I hear that term I think “underneath a tree with no direct sunlight, ever” but I wouldn’t think that’s the case here, especially during the summer
It makes a bit of difference in how you would want to approach this and with what plants — although it probably DOESN’T make that much of a difference to frogfruit
If you own the muddy side, a good approach would be to put down a rough cut wood mulch that will lock up and hold its place through a heavy rain. Next, I’d transplant 1 gallon native grasses all along that border. Something like inland sea oats, sideoats grama, or little bluestem. Same could be done along the side of the house. It’s the perfect time of year to do this kind of planting. As time goes on, and depending on what sort of foot traffic you need to accommodate, do more spot planting like this with native grasses to fill in the space. The more of this you have, the less erosion you have.
If you own the rocky side, a good approach would be to send the above advice to your neighbor.