Gardens

help! i need an easy ground cover solution for my front yard!?

i live in pittsburgh where it is way hilly so i have a retaining wall and an area of soil next to the sidewalk that is slopey, about 8 feet wide and 20 feet long. right now there are a couple of huge ugly bushes that i just cut back and two overgrown peonies in there, and many many weeds. i have no time, energy or knack for gardening. the patch gets full sun until the afternoon and probably has salt from the sidewalk in it. i want to plant something there that will grow thick and flat-ish and cover the whole area so i can ignore it. any ideas? thanks!
we have almost no yard other than this area so we have no grass clippings!

I live close to you, so I know your climate. I like a plant called myrtle. It’s a ground cover that I have that spreads pretty well and gets little purple flowers on it in the spring. It requires no maintanence except maybe trimming back with a weed whacker if it gets too long. Also English Ivy acts about the same and will grow up trees, walls etc. I just wouldn’t want it growing on my house like some people do because it attracts ants.

Alternanthera – A Ground Cover for Sun

Hillside Landscaping: A Complete Guide to Successful Gardens on Sloping Ground $6.99 When it comes to slippery slopes, one thing you dont need is a steep learning curve. Thats why Sunset is releasing a new edition of its popular Hillside Landscaping book. Hundreds of photographs illustrate just how beautiful hillside gardens can be, accented with elements such as streams, terraces, and boulders. Step-by-step instructions guide you through basic construction techniques for walls, p…

Taylor’s Guide to Ground Covers: More than 400 Flowering and Foliage Ground Covers for Every Garden Situation – Flexible Binding (Taylor’s Gardening Guides) $7.60 No category of plants works harder than ground covers to help a gardener create a beautiful yet low-maintenance landscape. In this book readers will discover the best plants • to stabilize banks and control erosion • to substitute for turf where grass won’t grow or is hard to mow • to line curbs and driveways, where salt will damage ordinary plants • to enhance a landscape wi…

This entry was posted on Friday, February 17th, 2012 at 9:11 pm and is filed under Gardens. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.