A weed is just a plant that is growing where you don't want it to grow. You may find that you do have some weeds that survive the winter, so not all may die back.

If you want to leave the "innocent" looking weeds, that is totally up to you. I have some very tiny ground cover type weeds that I don't really bother with pulling. By the time my plants fill in for the season, you can't really see those little weeds anyway.

You may want to fill in around those plants will a ground cover of some sort that will spread, that may look nicer.

If you don't mind the weeds that completely your choice. My sister dug up some cute "weeds" that had pink flowers, and tried to put them in hanging pots on her deck. They died! Of course, another characteristic of a weed, they won't grow where you want them to, and only grow where you don't want them!

Many people think any wild flower is a "weed" but as dianne stated a "weed" is simply a plant you don't want growing where you don't want it. Many of what many people think of as "weeds" could be food plants and one especially that people spend large amounts of time, energy, and money trying to eradicate, the dandelion, is a salad ingrediant in many resturants.

The "weeds" could also be important butterfly and bird food plants.

I would question why you think you need to take care of the hillside if it is a neighbors or just open ground. If your bodies are wearing out plant where you can see the plants on your line of sight and leave the rest to nature. Mother Nature puts those trees and other plants there for a reason. On a steep slope like this one planting trees with shallow roots such as hollies would seem to be inviting a landslide if the hillside becomes saturated.

The whole hill is in our line of sight! That's all we see when we look out our back windows. There was nothing on this hill but pinestraw when we moved in. That soon washed away and it was nothing but mud and weeds. The 2 sets of people who live up above and own parts of the hill won't take care of it as they are supposed to--but our HOA won't enforce anything. So instead of fighting the situation, we got permission to plant the hill so at least we'd have something nice to look at and attract birds at the same time.

Our extension society and 3 landscapers all felt the NRS hollies were good candidates for where they are, so I'm going to trust them on this one. I imagine the eleagnus and cotoneasters above them will prevent any landslide since they've done well in the last 2-3 years.

You could do creeping groundcovers in between the plants and hopefully they would take over and choke out the weeds.

If you really want a totally maintainance free solution, this might be costly at first, but worth it in the longrun. You could put down weed cloth or plastic around the plants and have landscape stone, or rock big enough that it wouldn't wash away, placed around the plants as mulch.

My mother has a neighbor that has a huge bank outside of his house. He has completely covered the bank with plastic and really big, potato sized landscape rock. Now he has no plants on that hill at all, I think its aweful looking with just rock, but he has never had a weed in over 25 years. That area of his yard is completely maintainance free.

I can understand why you would not want to put a lot of time and effort into improving someone else's property, that must be frustrating.

Diannelmt, that groundcover is exactly what I've been trying to find for the past 3 years! Every time I read about something that sounds great (like VA creeper) it usually turns out to be invasive. I'm ticked off with these neighbors but don't want to show it since they have every right to destroy what we've done.

We did try Pacific blue junipers maybe 2 years ago at the very top of the hill, hoping they'd spread downwards, but they all died. #1, we didn't know about slashing the root balls to free up the roots, and #2 we just couldn't get water up there and we were having a drought. But since it was an expensive mistake, we didn't try again.

Now that the eleagnus are growing so well, we're not all that concerned about the top of the hill. But from the hollies down, I'd love to have a groundcover. We just have to find something that can stand it both muddy and dry--and not climb up the plants. In the meantime, one neighbor has given me a lot of lilies/irises and I've also planted cardinal flower. Also threw some wildflower seeds all around yesterday to see what would happen.

I would truly love to eliminate the need for pinestraw. Southerners seem quite devoted to it, but I want greenery!

Just something for you to check on but around here slopes like the one shown are left as green space in most developments. It is posible that it is the HOA that owns the property not the neighbor. Ask to see a plat map of the subdivision to see if the area is shown as being part of the ajoining properties.

Did you ever think about creeping Phlox or that type of groundcover? Creeping phlox grows like crazy and fills in quickly. It also comes in so many different colored blooms! Even types of creeping Thyme could work well. My mother had thyme all over an embankment and it spread like crazy. Both of those plants don't have deep root systems and sort of float on top of the ground, they do not climb at all. Lilies and irises will work well, once they fill in. I have a section of embankment that I'm trying to cover with daylilies, but they still need mulch around them since they are just not filling in fast enough. Now my old fasioned ditch lilies have filled in tremendously, although they do get really tall. Lilies do need cut back at some point.

Perriwinkle is a good groundcover too. My parents had that everywhere when I was a kid. It does not climb and can grow just about anywhere. If you ever need to rake dead leaves out of it, its very tolerant to abuse and doesn't get tangled in your rake the way ivies do, and you end up pulling out as much ivy as you do fallen leaves!

Research ground covers, there are so many varieties, some evergreen shrub types and some are herbs, like thyme or lambs ear. I'm sure that you'll fine something to suit your situation.

Thanks, Diannelmt! I might go buy one of each of the plants you mentioned and see what happens. That's my new method since I've spent too much time and money buying 10 of something and then having them all die on me.

Oh hey! A lightbulb just went on over my head: in the front of our house there's something growing behind our foundation shrubs that I think is vinca--that's periwinkle, isn't it? I think I'll go out there right now to pull it up and stick it on my hill and see what happens!

Thanks for the ideas!

P.S. about the property: it SHOULD have been common area, but we do know exactly what parts are owned by the neighbors. They don't want to care for it, and I can't blame them, but it does irk that we're left landscaping it and it doesn't even belong to us. (We were naive in not asking when we bought the house.)

It was not your being naive when I asked. It was about your HOA, who should be taking care of common areas taking advantage of your good nature. Of course the HOA may have to raise fees if there are area's they are supposed to be taking care of and are not.

Yes, vinca and periwinkle are the same thing, there is a veriagated variety and a non-veriagated. I've seen creeping phlox sold in big pots, I've bought one big pot and divided it into several small "plugs" and spread it out where I want it.

I love transplanting stuff from around my property too, there is nothing better than free plants! I just transplanted some creeping jenny from my horse pasture into my gardens! That stuff is a ground cover and will grow just about anywhere too, even in the wettest of soil.

Good luck!