I don't have such a hill. But I can say that my A. tuberosa is one of my least demanding plants. Other than sun, they don't seem to need much. Seems ruds and echinacea might be good choices, as well as reseeding annuals like larkspur, nigella, poppies, nicotiana, melampodium, assuming that it's sunny. For those you could just broadcast the seeds and see what happens. Some places have large, cheap bulk packs of mixed wildflower seeds that might be fun.

Sun or shade?

Karen

This is a list of some that I would try. Many of these do well in dry areas. Some states plant them along the ditches of roads. Some I included because they are self sowers.

Echinacea, alliums, sedum, Achillia, Amaranthus, Shasta Daisy. Coreopsis. Cosmos, Eupatorium atropurpureum, Helenium, Liatris, Nicotiana, Pulsatilla- Pasque flower, Ratibida columnifera -Mexican hat, Salvias, Tithonia roundifolia, Yucca, hardy, Zinnias, Ornamental grasses, Dill, and Fennel

Excellent! Thanks! Now why is it that I never think to just toss down all the extra seed that I have into places like this just to 'see if it'll work?'

Thanks everyone. (This is why it took so long to invent the wheel...because you had people like me driving the flintstone square-wheel bus)

mmqc: Your choice of words is always entertaining. You should have been a writer.

mnwsgal gave a good list. Don't know how I forgot cosmos, they can reseed like crazy. Then there's gaillardia, forget-me-nots... so many.

Karen

I transplanted periwinkle on mine last February. I got tired of mowing it and the dirt was just too hard to work and no seeds germinated on it at all, unless you count crabgrass. The periwinkle has spread and covered the entire thing. I did mow it once last summer to encourage more growth. Hopefully it will keep the weed seeds in check this year.

We're about 4 years beyond where you seem to be in dealing with a tough slope. I expect our slope is larger and steeper than yours. We live in an 1830 farmhouse on a remnant of what was a very rolling, not very productive farm. Right behind our house was a steep hill which in the
absence of livestock since 1980 had grown full of invasive
honeysuckle, tree of heaven, nettles, thistles, poison ivy,
pokeweed, and other junk. There was a passable
though steep and slippery when wet path through the stuff
which led to our half-acre pond with its mowed meadow surround. Positives on the hill were a few hollyhocks from
before 1977 when we bought the place, a tall yellow perennial sunflower of some sort (weed/flower), sweet rocket and wild black raspberries.

In celebration of our golden anniversary in 2004 our adult
out of town son came for a week and with his work and a little paid help we cleared the hillside, mostly with mowers, hand digging and pulling, wedging out weeds. We used a little Round-up for really tough stuff. After my husband had a slide on his tush down the wet path, he agreed to the building of a wooden stair system with landing half down the slope. The cleared section of the hill was covered with mulch supplied and applied by a landscaper. For our celebration in Aug. 2004 we had the mulch covered hill.

Since then I've been adding as you described. Old fashioned daylillies, a long diagonal strip of the old fashioned purple coneflower which was being thrown out by a neighbor, 5 Rudbeckia Goldsturm from a garden club sale leftovers, bearded iris given their last chance to shape up, more hollyhocks, goldplate yarrow from another bed which had become shady. I threw in seeds for larkspur and annual poppies. Divisions of cluster bellflower and goose
neck Lysimachia which outgrew their spaces elsewhere. The
most outstanding things I planted were several clumps of
large miscanthus and two groups of 3 large alliums.

Surprises which came either as "hitch-hikers" with other
plants or just seeded from "somewhere" are old tall coreopsis, a field salvia like but not May Night, yellow
perennial foxglove, little forget-me-nots, a big batch of
columbine seedlings which haven't bloomed yet. From the
pasture beyond the pond come ironweed and the wild helianthus?? The milkweed has seeded at the edge of the pond, not on the hill. It is wetter over there.

IT IS BY NO MEANS MAINTENANCE FREE but it is low maintenance. Things do not plant themselves according to height. In spring I do a big day of pulling out nettles (we eat them) extra Mullein, extra sweet rocket after bloom, extra blooming meadow weeds. I need to walk on the
slope when I do this.

My goal was to plant stuff which was bold enough to show from the path around the pond about 150 ft away. The surprise was how beautiful the hill looks from above--the yard and from the house windows. Right now in Jan. that
is the ornamental grass clumps and the comeflower and
black-eyed susan heads that get visited by birds. Our only investment in money for plants have been a few packets of seeds and the Allium Bulbs. (We offered a cash sum for the fall leftovers from a local garden center)

Another surprise was finding things when we cleared and
prepared, but also still 4 years later. A very old buried
stone retaining wall--1800s?? crockery, lots of brick chips, bottles, metal tool pieces,etc.

I'm not a photographer but I will try to get some pictures as spring and summer come. Oh, I haven't mentioned--deer,
sometime 6 at a time climb the hill. The wooden stair system somewhat distracts them. They do some damage but
things survive.

This is more than I intended to write and more than you wanted. I want you to find satisfaction in your slope and to encourage you to proceed in the way you've begun.

Chris

wow Chris! Thanks for the input! It is easy to visualize your tremendous work that you've been doing there as you describe it, and gives me new hope for our little slope. I would have asked for pictures, but you beat me to the punch; I'll look forward to them later in the year! Thank you.

Thanks for sharing all that info, Chris. The vision I have of your hillside is quite lovely though I am sure the real thing is even lovelier and look forward to some photos later. I found your posting very interesting and I don't even have a slope.

Oh, I hope we see some pictures of your hillside soon, grandmachris! I sounds so beautiful.

MMQC, milkweeds grow around here in almost pure sand (so, low nutrients) and in very dry-looking spots.

Hills may be difficult to plant, but they give so much visual impact. I want a slope!

I appreciate this post so much! We just bought an unfinished new construction house on 1.33 acre in South Carolina. The house sits up on a hill which although there are some lovely pine trees and near the bottom is a stream with blackberry--most of the hill is bare red dirt--It seems to have clay but be somewhat sandy and it gets a good deal of sun. I've read through every post here and got lots of ideas--thanks to all of you who posted!

I so appreciate this thread! And Chris, I can almost picture your place - must be lovely! Would really enjoy seeing your photos. . .
My little plot of earth is really a series of rolling hills, a couple of acres with a small creek on one side, pine trees at one end and bamboo at the other. It is quite challenging, since it had not been tended for many years and not much of it is flat. When I moved here 6 years ago I began manually clearing patches here and there, and creating various beds where my great-aunt used to garden, but it is still high maintenance. So far there are terraced blueberry beds, 3 vegetable beds (one fenced since I have seen deer as well), small herb beds and the perennial beds that line the main path. This year I will finish the center bed with a bird bath and butterfly garden.
The slope is pretty steep in some places, and there is still much work to be done. I would love to create a rock path leading down from one level to the next. . . Every time my grown daughters come up for a visit, I try to finagle a "work day" out of them. LOL It really is too much for one person, but gardening is a passion and it keeps me out of trouble (somewhat).
Winter-sowing has been a lifesaver, since I can have numerous plants for very little expense. I continue to experiment with various irises, salvias, agastache, monarda, coneflowers, penstemon, cosmos, a couple of antique roses, many herbs and day lilies. There are also wild plants: Joe Pye weed, butterfly weed, passion flower, Queen Anne's lace, day lilies, daffodils, and even irises and roses(Some of these were obviously planted many years ago by my great-aunt).
I have searched the GW forums and have found many beautiful hillside garden pics that continue to provide inspiration.
Good luck to all of you with challenging inclines, and please keep posting photos! :P
Rosemary

When I first started winter sowing, I found this seed site called Wildseed Farms. They have a wonderful selection of wild flower seed at very reasonable prices. They have a lot of information on creating a Meadowland, etc. to create a very natural environment. You can buy seed mixes according to zone, or huge packets for less than $2.00 each... and I do mean HUGE size packs!

In the complex where I live, we have a retention pond that really needs some help in order to be asset, rather than a liability... if ya know what I mean... anyway, I plan on presenting this company to our HOA as a reliable supplier to help with the pond area restoration.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wildseed Farms

I just ordered from them last week for indiv. WS stuff. Timely shipping; course, this was before I thought about the slope. I'll go back on your recommendation to check out the 'bulk' offerings. Thanks.

I don't think there is one level spot anywhere on the 33 acres i live on.
I noticed you have many seeds, what i did now 3 years ago was cleared the steep slope I hated to mow. Broadcasted a lb of mixed flower seed, annaul and perennials. this year I can organize it a little better but here are 1st and 2nd year pics.
Season 1 2007
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Season 2 Spring:
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Season 2 late June till Frost
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Gorgeous! I love the mix! Which supplier did you use- that is really nice! I ask because I started with a "cottage garden" mix from WM several years ago, and didn't like it. Yours is a prettier mix than I had.

I bought the annual wildflower mix and the perennial mix form Outside Pride and mixed them together.
I thought they had the best pricing for bulk seed, however I found another site NEseeds that has better prices but not sure how they are for a company never ordering.
What is nice about Outside Pride, you can email tech support, tell them your project, how you want to sow and they will email you back suggestions on how to be successful. They are working with me on another large slope i want to rid of crown fetch.