Kill the sod and try a planting of the orange daylilies that people often call ditch lilies. You won't have to do anything to them once they establish (and they establish easily), and they won't escape because your neighbor's driveway is on one side and you'll be mowing on the other two. They can also handle the hot full sun they'll have there. Easy and cheap.

Where is the property line?

The first thing you should be thinking about is what do you want the planting to do besides exist and not need mowing?

If I were your neighbor, I'd be more interested in planting a couple of trees near the edge of the driveway so that I would not have the Great Wall of Ohio looming over me, but I would not have the same priority if I owned your house. I would be more interested in making it less visible from the street.

Keep in mind that the daylilies would die to the ground and leave a pretty ugly sight for the neighbor for much of the winter.

> Where is the property line?

The property line is pretty close to their driveway--about a foot or two (the flattest area)

> The first thing you should be thinking about is
> what do you want the planting to do besides exist
> and not need mowing?

It'd be nice if looked good from the street, but mostly, I'm interested in it looking better than the dead sod (and stop hearing my son complain about mowing that area).

> If I were your neighbor, I'd be more interested
> in planting a couple of trees near the edge of
> the driveway so that I would not have the Great
> Wall of Ohio looming over me

I like our neighbor so I definitely wouldn't be adverse to planting something more attractive--but I'm not sure what I can plant that close to the house that wouldn't be on his property. (Fortunately, that side is his side garage opening so it isn't as if they see it from their deck.)

> but I would not have the same priority if I
> owned your house. I would be more interested
> in making it less visible from the street.

Any specific ideas? I know that I'm viewing this as a strictly practical bit of landscaping, but I want it to look nice--not as if I just threw some things there all hodgepodge (which is what I tend to do and want to avoid in this new house)

Thanks.

I agree with Laag, Good views make good neighbors. If you haven't meet yet, take the opportunity to show you care, you'll all be happier for it. maybe a nice row of screening plants could be planted there-no grass no mowing.
That said it will not be easy to establish a good ground cover by the garage. The eave makes the ground right up against the house very hot and dry.
How does loriope or mondo grass grow in your zone? It's evergreen and very easy to establish. You'll only have to mow it if it gets ragged.

Beth, I'd like to suggest you consider RUBUS calycinoides (Creeping Raspberry) as a groundcover. Adding some shrubs would be optional but would further soften the large brick wall.

Best,
Rosie

I feel for your son. It seems others in the area may have the same problem so see what they are doing. Since the property line is not the driveway whatever you plant see if your neighbor minds you planting up to his drive and that will save him mowing too. Personally Blue Pacific juniper would do great in that area with possibly a crape myrtle or two.

Here is a link that might be useful: propagating Perennials

Clearly not the cheapest suggestion, but you could retaining wall it and flatten it out.

That said my front yard is steeper than that, I'd reseed it and just mow it.

This was my house a year ago during construction.

{{gwi:32833}}

We have a bank something similar to that between our driveway and the neighbour's. Our bank faces south so is in full hot sun all day and the soil is heavy clay to boot! Grass refused to grow there. It looks to me that the reason your grass is dying is probably white grub damage. So you could deal with that issue and then replant the grass if you want to keep it simple. Otherwise, the issues I see are (1) that you are likely going to need a path of some sort along the top of the bank to allow access from the driveway to the garage door and on into the backyard and (2) you will have to work with your neighbour if you are going to plant anything but grass. It makes no sense to plant just to your property line, leaving a foot of so of grass on the neighbour's side of the property line. That would be a maintenance problem for both you and the neighbour.

If you did plant the whole area with your neighbour in agreement, you might want to consider some of the plants that worked for us. Thyme on the flat part abutting the neighbor's driveway might be ideal. Orange-scented thyme, (perhaps mixed with lemon thyme) is a very fragrant, low maintenace plant that can take light foot traffic. Lavender grows well on our bank because the steep grade gives it excellent drainage (even in our awful clay!) Culinary sage also does well and provides a nice gray-green foliage that I call ever-gray (it doesn't quite stay evergreen but just sort of freeze-dries - I can still harvest/use it for cooking all winter!) Any other herbs that strike your fancy also fit in well. Both my neighbour and I harvest herbs from the bank so it's useful and attractive for both of us.

Roses do well on the bank. I mainly use seed-grown Angel roses (miniature China roses) that you can't find in a garden center but are easy to grow from seed if you are so inclined. But ordinary roses (I have Hot Cocoa there) also like the conditions. Butterfly bush also likes the well drained slope and does wonderfully well there, providing height and a bit of screening (as does the larger rose). Tulips and other spring bulbs appreciate the drainage. Summer bulbs like those conditions too - think lilies...

Planting the bank is the easy part. The first things though are sorting it out with your neighbour and making a practical access route at the top.

Update. I forgot you were in Zone 5. No crapes but maybe vase shaped red buds. The simplier the more pleasing to the eye.

Here is a link that might be useful: Propagating Perennials

Off topic, but your garage wall is screaming for a climbing vine

Daylilies are ugly most of the time and are very difficult to get rid of in the event that you or a future owner ever want to do something more productive in this area (sounds like a perfect vegetable garden, actually).

Vines can be pretty high maintenance.

I think too that your simplest solution is sunloving ground covers such as thyme and creeping junipers, maybe including some taller plants such as irises, which are pretty good at covering ground. An arrangement with some shrubs or even trees would look best, and easy enough to put together.

The thing is, this is part of your whole landscape though. Your grass problem extends into the front yard along your driveway. You have to decide from the front of your property, from your neighbour's yard, and from an access/maintenance point of view, what goes with the rest of the property and with your life. Like, there's a door there - need a path? How does your neighbour get the mower from his/her patch of grass at the back to their front yard? etc.

KarinL

Arctostaphylos uva ursi (Bearberry aka Kinnikinnick) is a groundcover I've noticed in all the garden centers here this year. Dwarf evergreen perennial with short, creeping, red-brown branches with pink or white bell-shaped flowers in the spring and shiny, bright red or pink berries.

I picked up a couple since it was noted to work well under other trees and shrubbery, a few inches high with a spread of maybe 3'. Would work well with some other creeping evergreens, taller shrubs and/or flowering perennials like iris or Siberian Iris. I've always liked the Siberians because the foliage stays clean and upright all season.

You've got several options, including using just a groundcover or adding some more "interest," which is what's behind the ideas about shrubs or vines and trellis. You'd be the one to know whether that would be completely wasted on both you and your neighbor if no one really looks at it, or cares (it's okay not to care), although it might be viewed as you approach the house driving down the street.

Shrubs would have to be narrow or have just a bit of overhang and not interfere with the driveway. There are other considerations such as dropping stuff that will all work its way down onto the driveway--certainly redbuds will offend in this way, and even crape myrtles, hence the idea of collaborating with the neighbor, and just plain becoming more knowledgeable about anything that you might plant. The neighbor now has a nice bright white driveway and may like it just that way, not having any deciduous leaf drop or spent pink blooms or whatever (though he does not control what grows on your own property and the wind might blow his way). Still, is something to think about because anything blooming or deciduous that you plant there will function somewhat differently from something planted in a flat large garden "bed", or in the middle of your lawn that you can mow and mulch up any debris.

If the mowing can continue a bit, then you could think about laag's point of trying to enhance your front property as a priority. But if the mowing is unsafe, then the slope is your priority.

Groundcover can be combined with some tall shrubs and mounding shrubs but again, you are going to get a number of suggestions and not necessarily right for you, so you would want to be knowledgeable about your growing conditions, how you will water to get established, weeding for awhile, and come up with several options for those conditions and narrow them down. Drive around and look at "groundcover" plantings in your area.

And again, from a planning standpoint, you have to decide whether you are collaborating and co-opting the neighbor's strip, as would work with a well-behaved groundcover that will stop at the concrete edge, vs. trying to put in some kind of edging at the property line. Currently you are collaborating by both having the grass.