Hillside photos and slope (ugly)

13 years ago

This is our worst year ever. I think that including the heat index we have reached over 100 for the 2 months that I have been out of school. I can do nothing after about noon, so I start at daybreak.

My slope needs basic maintenance now. Here are the pics"

The third picture shows the slope the best. It also shows my poison ivy bag. After the slope of the hill there is a plateau, then a small creek and greenery on the other side.

At this point I will go into the creek and start taking rocks to put on the hill. We will plant 4-6 crape myrtles, and try to keep rose beds at the top. The hill is eroding fast, so I need something that will be almost a guarantee that it will stop the erosion. We think the rock were originally put on the hill, so we are going to replace them.

I will start thinking about the hill as a number of small plots to work on. You can see my first one with the SDLM to be deadheaded, and then then Bubble Bath hybrid musk. To the left is my wonderful Cramoisi Superieur and a smaller one.

I appreciate all of your input, and will take careful notes, and may make changes this year if needed. I will be keeping this area clean with Round Up, and using a roller when I am close to the Crape Myrtles. We are digging out the Carefree Delights, The Fairy, Eutins and some others that are filled with poison ivy,and I cannot clean them.

I am pretty sure that Texas has had our weather. I hope the rest of you have had some cool days, and not such heat every day. The sidewalks are even too hot to walk the dogs - I do that before the sun comes up.

I am down to about 150 rose bushes, and need to make life a little easier on myself.

Thanks for reading - I am sorry it is so long.

Sammy

Comments (14)

greybird
13 years ago
I feel your pain having to do such backbreaking labor in the heat. Every year, I tell my husband this is the hottest summer ever and he says "it's always like this". I think we just forget how miserable it gets. Please use caution, heat exhaustion can creep up on you before you know it.
I have always wanted a hillside, but I never considered what it takes to maintain it.
mrlike2u
13 years ago
For more root erosion protection your zone looks good so maybe you can grow some Rose of Sharons with or behind Crape Myrtles.
All by hand I assume ? Well you got a bit of work to do Heat or no heat, If it was me I'd just rent a bob cat or a small bulldozer and be done with it.
Related Discussions
Hillside 'Edging' Question
Q
Comments (16)
Well, the time is coming up for me to install the said edging. I am now trying to decide between which types of timbers to use. What is the better option? The 4"x4"x8' squared off timbers or the the rounded landscape timbers which are 3"x'4"x8'? I would think the squared off ones would be sturdier, and the rounded ones, while they are more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes, seem like they would not be as sturdy as the squared off ones in this application Obviously both will be pressure treated. The ground at the top of the slope is flat and is our yard. At the very top of the slope, is a fence, which has flower beds along it on the interior of the yard. On the exterior of the fence is the slope, which is where I want to remove the grass and put mulch. I do have some blue rug junipers along the whole length of the slope now, but the weeds come back with a vengance in this area. Which is why I want to "edge" and mulch the top portion. Allow the junipers to grow in and maybe put in some pachysandra or daylillies to control erosion until the junipers fill in. No matter which timber I choose, I feel that from the base of where I want the edging at, I should dig down 12" inches and back 12". Fill the bottom 6" with drainage gravel and install 6" of timber below the base of the edging. Will also be using rebar, about every 6' to secure it down. Also, those spikes to secure the timbers to one another. Above that base, I am looking at having about 8" of height to my edging. Will also be installing deadmen timbers every eight feet on the base course. Then, back filling the wall with gravel. Does this sound like this edging will be structurally sound and if it does move, it will be minimal? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I hope I gave enough information.
...See More
ugly steep hillside; need help/ideas
Q
Comments (15)
I don't think you'd be looking for a tidy groundcover like one might have in a refined garden, but something a little more "wild" for that bank ... like lespedeza, grasses, wildflowers ... things that could be seeded. things with arching forms that look good cascading down hillsides. I would still push for suggestions from local landscapers. Make more calls. It would be helpful to know what is being used locally for hydroseeding banks. This post was edited by Yardvaark on Sat, May 11, 13 at 0:19
...See More
Pictures on hillside (ugly, early spring)
Q
Comments (8)
Sammy, All kinds of potential there! You can probably do pretty much what you want. I'm enjoying imagining things there now... Is this waterway a public access area? Then you might want to start your planning with a decision as to how you are going to have some visual separation between your yard and the public area, if this area has a noticeable amount of traffic. It seems to me that that planning would come first, and then some decisions as to exactly where you want the pathway to come down the hillside. It doesn't look bad as it is now, but depending on how you switch things around, you might want to find a way to visually separate the differently colored stepping pavers so that one sweep of the eye doesn't notice the difference in materials. As a matter of ease in walking, you might also want to buy some more of either kind of paver and place them a little closer together. Consider buying enough pavers more that you can pile some up as some platforms right next to the path. Pile them at different heights on the way down the slope directly next to a stepping paver so that you can place large and variously sized pots on those little platforms next to the path. Make sure that you have different plants in the different pots, including some vertical things, like (perhaps) some ornamental grasses. One other way of handling this might be to buy some extra pavers, of whichever color you want to make the path, and then use the other color, of which you'll have fewer, to make the piles that become pot platforms. You might be able to get some of those pots in a color that looks really good with one color of paver or the other. You might actually want to investigate pots before deciding on which color to select for the stacked pavers. It's amazing how much little platforms next to a downward path can add to the overall appeal of the path. Another consideration would be to add some plants that are evergreen and some that are rather tall, to use as a backdrop for the roses in little garden rooms that can branch off the main path. Camellias are just one plant that can do this "wall" separation nicely, if you get varieties that are good for your area. I'd suggest going with sasanqua camellias if you do camellias; they are more hardy and aren't prone to root rot. As long as the area that floods doesn't stay under water for very long, you might even be able to grow some sasanqua camellias in the low flat area. A few varieties you might consider for vigorous upright growth: Kanjiro, Hiryu, Hugh Evans, Misty Moon. I think you'd absolutely adore Shishigashira in some pots placed on paver stacks going down the path. (We actually have cut a shishigashira bloom here in January, and again in February, after multiple nights in the teens, including a couple with an official low of 13 degrees!) A bunch of crepe myrtles will be beautiful near the stream. I also think it might be nice to have some evergreen things there to separate your yard from any public areas. As long as the area doesn't have standing water, there might be some evergreens that would work. Arizona Cypress or perhaps Burfordi Holly might work. The taller growing sasanqua camellias would work, though it would take a few years to do much for your privacy. For something else that isn't evergreen, a weeping willow tree or a River Birch might be nice. A single weeping willow tree can become a natural focal point. Depending on your budget for this, it isn't impossible to have something like a pergola built at the bottom of your stairs. You wouldn't want it directly in the public access portion of the lower area, but farther away from the stream than that. You can build it with an elevated floor and nice stout posts, with a large planter built on one end that rises maybe 30 inches above ground level, with sides exactly meeting up with the outer edge of the posts on one end. Put wonderful dirt in the planter, and then plant it with a couple of Madame Alfred Carriere roses to climb there. MAC likes a lot of water (though not standing water, of course). Build a little bridge to get from the path to the pergola. (I've little notion of how to do that, but one or more of the Sunset building projects books have something like that in them.) Under the bridge to the pergola and all around on the flat low ground, plant ferns and lots of bulbs and other flowers that will give a wild carpet look to the low ground, and help to emphasize the pergola as it rises from that low ground covering. Hang a couple of wooden swings inside the pergola, and place a pot or two with a somewhat vertical plant at its entrance, and one that's very low and traipsing. Do the same thing with pots at the point where the bridge meets the path. Martha Gonzales will look wonderful on your hillside, Sammy. It might be nice to repeat her near the path as you go down, especially given her height. Or consider her for some pots going down alongside the path too... Lots of choices! The possibilities are endless! Have fun! Best wishes, Mary
...See More
Rose Suggestions to fill a deer fence on steep hillside
Q
Comments (7)
Two roses that Gregg Lowery mentions as growing untended around the Sebastopol area are Aglaia and Mme. Alfred Carriere. They do get a fair amount of annual rain up there, but Lafayette also gets a lot, relative to Livermore at least. But even around Livermore, I've seen some old roses (an Eglantine comes to mind) that survive on their own, though all once-bloomers. My low-care rose on a fence (and at the top of a hill) is Alistair Stella Grey (the clone from Vintage, which is reputed to be not as large-growing as other versions). This rose is incredibly neat-growing: has reached 7 feet tall and about that wide and there it stays, more or less, with virtually no work by me, except to occasionally re-attach it to the fence when the wire breaks (good exercise). This year finally, about 8 years after planting it, I went up and trimmed dead wood out from under the canopy, but the rose is still leaved, and flowering, all the way to the ground and didn't look bad even before the pruning. I do water it. I have two steep hillsides in my yard, most of which are planted with natives or other drought-tolerant plants, with a small portion given over to teas whose nodding blossoms are best viewed from below. It doesn't sound like you have enough room for a Fremontodendron (nor do I). Many Ceanothus do not fare well in heat, but Ray Hartman, Concha, and Blue Jeans tolerate the heat in Livermore very well. Ray Hartman has the added advantage of being the fastest-growing Ceanothus, ever. Toyons grow very slowly here, but are nice when up to size. Garryas, according to Las Pilitas, are unstable in hot summer areas, but I've managed to keep one, nicely, by growing it in partial shade. Salvia clevelandii, Salvia mellifera, Artemisia californica, and Rhamnus californica are all foolproof and sturdy shorter shrubs. Many manzanitas are suffering from a mysterious die-back disease, which made me hesitate to use them, though there are some magnificent old stands around. Definitely, ANY planting would need to be watered for the first two years at least, fairly regularly the first year, then gradually tapering off during the course of years two or maybe even three (if droughty). What I did was lay out a fixed array of soaker hoses, connected to a hose with an end within convenient reach of the garden hose. When it comes time to water, just hook it up to the garden hose and there you are -- no need to set sprinklers or drag yourself and the hose up the hill. When the need for supplemental water is over, remove. My hillside plantings are now quite dense and pleasing and, except for the roses, need no water at this point.
...See More
sherryocala
13 years ago
Sammy, I like your rock-surrounded beds. Is that what you're going to do with the other rocks you'll be bringing uphill? You've done SO MUCH work since the "before" photos you posted in the spring, and your roses are looking green and bushy inspite of the heat. Just looking at your steps makes me tired. That's backbreaking work, but it has turned out very well. I hope you find some good anti-erosion plants. I have no personal experience with hillsides, but everyday I drive by a rather deep retention area (you could probably put a house in it) that suddenly has a gaping hole in one of the sodded slopes. Somehow the flowing rain just dug out a chunk of earth like a boulder came out of it, and now below that hole are grooves in the soil, getting deeper with every rain. I would imagine it's likely to undermine that whole side if not fixed. Rushing water is a powerful thing. I do hope you are able to manage your hill, protecting your roses and making this area beautiful. With your determination I'm sure you'll get it done.

Sherry
elemire
13 years ago
The hill is eroding fast, so I need something that will be almost a guarantee that it will stop the erosion.

You know, the fastest way to guarantee the stop of erosion is grass. Here they use grass on all the dikes, because it improves the sturdiness of the whole dike structure significantly. So round-up everything might work counter productive in your case, because it increases the erosion.
greybird
13 years ago
I'm with elemire, grass would be a quick and effective fix. With the erosion then controlled, you could build the beds you desire at your leisure. Though, this time of the year with the heat, it would take a lot of water to get it going.

How about bermuda grass (not)....!

Also, I have read burlap is used to control erosion on bare hillsides until the vegetation can take hold.
melissa_thefarm
13 years ago
Sammy,

This is a significant problem for us as well, as we have steep ground and deep clay: our various slides revealed five feet of clay at least, and no rock yet at the bottom. I don't have any tried and true solutions, but can at least share what we're trying. Maybe some of it will be useful.

I've gotten really cautious about disturbing the soil by plowing or earth moving: if it's more than can be shifted by a shovel or a hoe, we leave it alone. All our slides have been in areas in which the soil had been disturbed. And more and more I'm leaving herbaceous plants--weeds and grass--until I have something to put in their place, since, as Elemire pointed out, the ground benefits by the holding power of their roots, as well as by the organic matter they add. (However I totally agree that the poison ivy has to go.) We do a lot of minor terracing (to a height of about a foot in the garden) with boards and rebar, which are very plain indeed but work to define beds and paths, and make the former field look much more like a garden by giving it flat areas. I would use rocks for terracing if we had any. And we have deep-rooted trees scattered through the garden, hoping that they'll be well enough established in a few years to prevent slides, as so far seems to be the case. In the case of ground that requires restoration, particularly in the case of the slide areas that have lost their topsoil, I leave all herbaceous growth (that means weeds) of course, and intend to plant native colonizing shrubs. We've planted seedling trees with minimal success, so I think we need to back up to colonizing plants. The heavy mulch we keep on the ground slows down runoff and allows absorption of rain; at least I think it does. All of these strategies are thoughtful, but we have no training in soil conservation or related topics.

I'm returning to Italy next week and will be able to see what my garden looks like after a month and a half here in Florida. My husband tells me that we got two inches of rain last week, which is excellent for August, and makes me hope that we might enjoy a decent fall flowering this year, the first in some years. Florida has been really hot and humid this year, so much so that I've hardly gone outside except to go swimming; and if I had a garden here I can guarantee you I wouldn't have been out working in it. This week the heat has finally eased up a little.

In a climate where summers are hot and dry by this time gardens often look really ratty, young gardens especially. Yours looks like you're off to a good start: the roses look robust and healthy. I know that when I pass the summer in Italy I dedicate my garden time to pulling bindweed and Bermuda grass and it's no fun at all, but fall is on the way. I think that when our trees and shrubs get some size on them the whole garden is going to look a lot better, and will be more comfortable with the shade. These things just take time, as I keep telling myself. ...
hemlady
13 years ago
Daylily roots are the best for holding back a hill. That's what I have used on my hill in front of the house. You have plenty of sun and daylillies are drought tolerant. they also come in 75,000 cultivars!
lagomorphmom
13 years ago
Sammy, two thoughts. First, instead of (or over?) the weeds, do you have access to a 'cover crop' that you could leave in place (not turn over) but that would be native to your area? Lot's of the seed companies sell different kinds and even mixes, might be something to look into, especially if you could get away with something like clover which would help fix nitrogen back into the ground.

Second, for the near term. I have *no idea* how much these cost, but as you may have heard, we have a lot of problems with run off in our burn areas not to mention the usual where roads are cut into hills. Now the road folks use a lot of straw wattles that are like a burlap tube, maybe 8" in diameter filled with a hay product. It comes in a coil and you simply lay it across a hill perpendicular to the flow of water to reduce hydraulic flow. They work really well and seem to stay in place well also (you use a few small stakes to keep them from rolling down hill). The Dirty Jobs show did an episode about them but the diameter of the tube was larger than what you would use.

Here's a link to the Dirty Jobs episode
http://www.selbysoil.com/dirtyjobs.htm

I tried to find pricing, but as you know with construction stuff, most sites want you to call. If you can find a local place that would avoid shipping. I also found one company that said theirs were weed free, dunno if that's industry standard, although ours don't seem to sprout. Here's one I found that had a price quote of $21 for 25ft which didn't sound as bad to me anyway as carrying rocks up the hill to break the water.
http://earthaidusa.com/straw-wattle.aspx

I hope you can fix it before it gets too bad, Kerin
lagomorphmom
13 years ago
Oh, re the cover crop. I know you're dry so you might put seed down in the late summer / early fall if it's warm enough and you get some rain to sprout it before it's cold enough to snow.
sammy zone 7 Tulsa
Original Author
13 years ago
I appreciate all of your suggestions and thoughts about my hillside.

I did not mention that trucks and equipment cannot get through unless they take the time to put down boards under the wheels of the vehicles.

We paid for that last summer when we had 4 trees removed, but since few people can see our hillside, we don't want to pay for that now.

I can create in a small space - one bed at a time, but my school starts next Wed. and my time is so limited, that I have decided on the crape myrtles ( I already have 15 that have been thriving for years.), and big rocks.

As much as I love my roses, they are not easily trimmed. Taking out poison ivy or the beginnings of trees is very difficult. I need to wait a year at this time.

Therefore after I plant my 4 newly purchased Crape Myrtles, and a few that naturally have cropped up, I will use the construction stones that are in the creek.

I am saving this thread so I can refer to it as I can find time to continue working on the hillside.

Thanks to you all,
Sammy
zeffyrose
13 years ago
I love the way you have the steps curving down your hillside---
it looks very nice----good luck with the erosion problem---

Lots of people in my area with a small hill use ivy instead of grass---once it is established there is no maitenence--

good luck----it looks good already

Florence
rosefolly
13 years ago
I'd plant a cover crop, and quickly. I can't recommend what it ought to be because I don't know your climate. However, a good cover crop will slow erosion, reduce weeds, fix nitrogen, and introduce organic matter into your soil. I would contact your local Master Gardeners or your local agricultural extension agent ASAP for information appropriate to your region.

Rosefolly
harborrose_pnw
13 years ago
Sammy, if you have an area where you are in need of a retaining wall, you might check into using old tires. We live on the top of a hill that is forested. The people who built this house in the 60's cleared part of the forest and used layers of old tires filled with dirt or sand as a retaining wall on one large sloped area. Vegetation has grown up and it's hard to tell it's old tires. It seems very solid. Cheap.

Drink lots of water... Gean
poodlepup
13 years ago
You took our Summer!
It's freezing fog in the morning, and late afternoon. We get about 3 hours a day of sun & it never gets out of the 70s! It's our coldest Summer in 40 years!
I hate it. I want to suffer in the heat!

Hillside photos and slope (ugly)

Comments (14)

greybird

mrlike2u

Related Discussions

sherryocala

elemire

greybird

melissa_thefarm

hemlady

lagomorphmom

lagomorphmom

sammy zone 7 Tulsa
Original Author

zeffyrose

rosefolly

harborrose_pnw

poodlepup

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Hillside photos and slope (ugly)

Comments (14)

Related Discussions

sammy zone 7 TulsaOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

sammy zone 7 Tulsa
Original Author