I would agree with nandina that there are some civil engineers that will be the most qualified to deal with your problem. But before you make that call, I suggest you know two things; which is the best engineer for your situation and what you hope that engineer will do for you. There are good engineers and also those that are incompetent. There are good engineers that won't have expertise in the area you need. There are good engineers that will have a conflict of interest, some of which will rightfully refuse you as a client and those that will take your money anyway. There are three things you might hire an engineer to do: 1. Complete a set of plans that will fix your problem. 2. Do an analysis and advise you of the situation such that you can make the best decision as to what course of action to follow. 3. Provide expertise and expert testimony for a legal team in an action to recover damages from someone. The best engineer to do one of the above is unlikely to be the best for the other items. Choose wisely, an engineers time does not come cheap, even if s/he is not being effective. Considering item #1, a project to fix your problem. You have not been very specific as to what your problem is, an unstable slope or flooding. Often serious problems of this nature require large sums to fix. I have to ask, if the fix is greater than you can afford, will a set of plans that you can't complete be of any use to you, or just wasted money? Let's look at what might happen if you call a qualified engineer. He comes out to your property, looks around, racks up a few billable hours, and sets an appointment at his office. Later at his office your are presented with a contract for services estimated at $5,000.00 on a project likely to cost $30,000.00 If you can't go forward you will be asked to pay the account to date. 2. When you call, the engineer is aware of the problems of that area. A lot of his practice may be with land developers of the area and taking a minor client that might put him in a position of criticizing past or future clients will not be in his interest. Especially if the situation may lead to litigation. Or maybe he knows that there will not be any economically justifiable fix for the problem. So he refuses you as a client or starts then makes his fee unaffordable (see #1 above). 3. You call a qualified engineer that does not have a conflict of interest and doesn't waste his clients money. This guy is not going to come out to your property. It's likely he will grant you a short interview to present your problem. He will invite you to bring photos, lot survey plat, and any other documents that might have information about the situation to be combined with any in-house data he may already have, such as topo maps. After hearing you, he will explain what services he can provide and what the likely cost will be. If you don't hire him or he refuses the work, you wont get much of a bill if any. If you choose to go forward he will send technicians to the site to gather the data he will need. Only when he has real data to work from will he start billing you for his expensive time. You should seek to bring the very best and most complete information to the interview that you can provide. Until I have time to write more, here is some homework to do: Go to the County Clerk, El Paso County and ask to see the subdivision plat (Volume 77, Page 86, Plat Records). Take your camera with you and take photos of the plat and close ups of the plat title block, the engineers stamp and name, your lot, any plat notes, and anything that is an approval by the City or County government.

I have been doing a lot of research on plants that don't need a lot of water since we bought a 3 acre property in lake mathews, ca. Here's what I have so far...verbena rigida, creeping raspberry...both spread very fast and require little water. I will be buying these for our slopes. delosperma cooperi is similar to ice plant but very hardy and does not require as much water.... Ice plant requires a lot of water and its heavy. That is what we have currently and we will be replacing it with what I have written here. All our slopes have ice plant and we are trying to save water costs. So I will be adding those ground covers and adding water wise bushes and other plants. Snow in summer also sounds like a good plant to add. They say it spreads fast and it's very nice... I also want to add fremontodendron, it looks like a nice bush to add...since we have so much room... Any other ideas?

I have just planted a new shrub garden (house is just 1 year old) on a slope. At the bottom of the slope it is wet after a rain, but drains off within 24 hours. It is on the south side of the house getting east-west sun. Here's what I planted in the wet area: Itea virginica Little Henry 'Sprich' low-growing, gorgeous red fall foliage, green leaves in season with white racemes when it blooms. I'm totally enthusiastic about itea. It is accompanied by carex testacea and dolichostachya, acorus gramineus variegatus 'ogon' (shaded by shrubs), iris ensata, iris siberica, creeping jenny. Slightly up the slope, I added aster frikartti 'Moench'. As it gets drier further up my slope, I then used drought-tolerant plants like hypericum x hidcote, hepatcodium, salvia 'black and blue', lavandula, cryptomeria japonica globosa nana, deutzia gracilis 'nikko', hypericum albury purple, stachys byzantina, nepeta. I prepared the entire garden using wonderfully organic and screened garden soil brought in by a double dump truck. Here is a link that might be useful: Itea virginica -- info purposes only

Some larger growing grasses/sedges that are native to southern California would also work well as filler between the shrubs. You might consider using Eleymus condensatus 'Canyon Prince', which slowly spreads to form large clumps, has lovely pale blue foliage and can get 4 feet tall. Various Juncus species such as Juncus patens(bluish foliage) and Juncus effusus or Juncus 'Carman's Japan' are both in the 2 foot height range and a deep green color. Juncus are well adapted to both wet soils and drought, and are best planted to establish in winter. The Carex species such as C. pansa and C. praegacilis are both not ideal on slopes with clay soils, and would probably need more irrigation than you are wanting to give them. Carex tumulicola is easier to establish, but still is likely to look better if given more water and some shade. As a complement to the shrubs you already have on this slope, and as a faster filler to cover the slope, you might also consider using some fast growing Salvia species as filler/ground cover. Salvia clevelandii would work well, as would S. leucophylla 'Pt. Sal Spreader', which has great gray colored foliage and can spread quickly to form a shrub 8 foot across. You could also use the common Monkey Flower, Mimulus aurantiacus, which is a drought tolerant, low spreading herbaceous shrub native to the Santa Monica Mountains. Another great herbaceous perennial for southern California beach areas would have to include Erigeron glaucus and its hybrids and cultivars. You might find that adding automated drip irrigation for this slope increases the growth rate and ease of establishing anything you plant, as hand watering is unlikely to be getting water deep enough to really encourage deep rooting on a slope. Getting things planted now, in January is the best time to get anything out there established with the winter rains and cooler weather.