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Plants for Difficult Places

Front yard overhaul needed, problem with hill.

17 years ago

Hello, this is my first message on here and I hope I am doing this correctly. My home is on a hill. The hill goes directly out to the street, there is no sidewalk at all. We have some neighbors who tend to have alot of guests and tend to park in front of our home. Sometimes they drive a bit onto our lawn (nice people they are :) ) I want to get rid of the grass on the front yard and make my home accessible to visitors who would use the front door. However I am concerned about planting something that people will drive up onto. Also I am concerned about erosion and run off which we get as well. I will include a picture of our home. We were talking about an easy to care for ground cover plant. I was thinking some large granite stones in the front of the yard. Making them almost flush with the ground to prevent people from driving up onto our plants. Anyway.. ANY IDEAS??? HELP!

Thanks

Torre

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:655209}}

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Comments (2)

mersiepoo
17 years ago
Spacing some stones would keep your wonderful neighbors from turfing your lawn and then you could grow some nice groundcover too. Depending on how high you want the stuff to grow, there is so many ground covers you can choose from. Vinca is nice, you can get a few colors to choose from. The deer/rabbits/mice/moles/voles etc don't eat it. Not sure how good it is for erosion control. You could also try bundle flower (desmanthus illinoensis), it's a perennial, for erosion control, and it's got decorative seed pods and is native to the US. It's hardy to -20, so since you are in Ma, not sure if that will survive or not, unless you use mulch. I got some to try where we have erosion problems, you can purchase it at horizonherbs.com, they got some interesting seeds and plants, and they have great customer service. You can also plant crownvetch, but it can be invasive and I personally don't like it. There are also shrubs that can help control erosion like candleberry.
cookie_gardener
17 years ago
We're new here too - but here goes: Your home is nice, and it's symmetrical (windows & then door is centered). You could create an additional path straight down to the street (more symmetry, if you like it), and maybe small decorative fenceposts or other structure down at the street to make a strong statement and delineate the property. It might give the 'parkers' pause if they think they're blocking your walkway? I like the idea of large stones and vinca or juniper along the street too to make a strong edge. Good luck!
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