Juliann, I'll post a site from the UK that has pictures of various types of gardens. This link goes to their Cottage Garden which they say is "contrived to look uncontrived". There are many other types of gardens there that might provide inspiration. Which plants you choose depends on which climate zone you are in. I'm in zone 3 so am somewhat limited in what I can grow. I'll post a pic of what I call my wild bird garden. It's an area in my large garden that has the birdfeeder and birdbath. I allow the flowers to go to seed for the birds so they self-seed. This area has changed over many years altho I initially seeded shasta daisies (the butterflies love them) and yarrow and planted a few established perennials. The yarrow seeds I planted were a mix of red, pink, and white, but the white resembles the wild yarrow we have so we pull it out and it's mostly now only tones of pinks and red. There are also Lamb's Ears because they seed all over my garden but I leave them in this wild area (the bees love them). There are a few other plants, a pink mallow that's 'weedy' but it fills the space and is quite pretty and we also have several lilacs here. Near that area there is also a drift of common old irises which we've allowed to spread. They are in the lower part of the rockery and I will eventually weed some of them out as the bloom time is not very long. If I were deliberately planting a wildflower garden I would not buy a wildflower mix as there could be invasive plants in it. I planted a mix about 14 years ago and still have Dame Hesperis (Dame's Rocket) altho pull out many every year and try to dead-head them ASAP before they seed. It's quite a weed in warmer climates. I would choose seeds of plants I like that are hardy but not invasive and mix them together. Another option is to plant in swaths with various plants and grasses hardy to your area. Keep in mind the moisture requirements of the plants as you decide. The area where I have shastas, mallow, and yarrow needs little watering and only a spring weeding so is easy care. Here is a link that might be useful: The Garden House

I have a few suggestions. I am near DC, so I know a few things that work in this area although I think your temperature swings are larger. First, I really love the wild look of the grass and the soft subtle shadings from gold to russet. It looks from a distance very lovely and a great transition from the lawn area to the woods. However, I think you are asking for a controlled wildness with little to no upkeep and no mulch. My instinct is that if you spread the low growing grass mix over that area, the more established grasses would beat them out. It would be patchy at best and you would have to weedwack anyway. Here are my suggestions. I think it would be lovely to plant that hill with daffodils -you would probably need hundreds - let them come up, then weedwack in early summer as the leaves of the daffodils die (don't cut beforehand or they will not store enough for next Spring). There is some type of attachment you can buy for a power drill/driver that will make the job super easy. The bulb forum is rather slow, but very knowledgeable. For summer to Fall, you would be stuck with what you have now. An alternate suggestion is to use cardboard/paper to smoother what is there and then plant perrenials with high sun/low water tolerance. There are lots of lovely hardy sedums and day lillies come to mind. I really love lavendar also. Maybe some bushes for height/erosion control. For that space, it would be a LOT of cardboard! The reason I suggest cardboard is you can use long garden staples to keep it down. It would also become dirt and need to be renewed to continue suppressing weeds. Big project every few years and to make it nice looking, I would layer fall leaves or mulch on top. Look up lasagna gardening for more details. Another choice is to buy a meadow mix, throw it out there and let the plants duke ii out --survival of the fittest! Hope my ideas are helpful! I am not so much trying to give exact instructions as to point you towards possible paths where further research can help you reach the best conclusion.

The shrubs growing on the slope look that they have been there quite a while and seem to be growing straight up. (Sometimes, if there is a bend like an old-fashioned walking stick handle in the stem near to the ground, that bend can indicate that the land is slumping.) About the tree roots showing: there's not a great deal of topsoil from what I could see so the roots have probably spread out to forage for food and water. A number of tree species have suface roots - some quite gnarled and obvious. Think swamp cypress for a start. Unless the trees are very tall and your local prevailing winds are fierce or unpredictable you aren't likely to get windthrow. On a slope such as yours I'd be looking for grooves cut by runoff from the top as the precursor to shallow gullying - and that didn't seem to be happening. Personally, I wouldn't spend on 'posh plants' for such a slope. I'd ask for 'pioneer-type' shrubs - preferably native to your area. If you have a native plants nursery near you - pick their brains. Grasses, creepers, low-nutrient environment shrubs and sub-shrubs. That soil is obviously not rich - it hasn't been colonised by much at all. If you need clues and there are cuttings at the sides of your roads check there for what will establish and thrive and stay seemly. (No one needs a slope covered in fire risk weeds!) When you visit with the plant place/s ask for SPECIFIC guidance on how to plant up a steep slope. If it has a high clay content - let them know because it will change what they will advise. If there is any better soil available on your lot, and you can spare some - mix it in with the slope soil when planting but don't bother putting in fine compost. All that happens is the plants grow out to the limits of the top grade environment and then either sulk or die. Think about buying your reveg plants in 'root trainer' tubes rather than big cans or baggies. They'll be younger and better equipped to strike out, rootwise. Hear you when you say you're budget-constrained. See if you can legally collect native seedlings of suitable plants, grow them on, then plant out. Sometimes a neighbour can be a good source. Under the bird feeder, in a garden, can be another - but expect a lot of berry-producing plants ;-) And, as the slope is a bit of a challenge - could you devise a ladder to get you upslope for planting? Or a scaffoldiong arrangement. Something with wide enough treads so you don't end up with anguished feet!

Just so you know, getting any plant established will require watering on a regular basis the first season, so plan on doing that and get the length of hose needed. One suggestion would be to lay hose under the mulch with a sprinkler set at the top of the slope and leave it there so that all you have to do is hook it up to the water and turn it on whenever it's dry. The fewer times you have to walk on the slope, the better, so you might want to ask your up hill neighbor if you can use his yard for access the first season since it's also to his benefit to have the slope stable in the long run. Or use the stake and board method below to build a temporary set of steps. Or a more permanent set along with a path across the midslope for easier access when needed. I have a steep sandy hill from an old river channel that was disrupted by construction in a few areas, and here is what we did. We began by doing things to stabilize the slope on a short-term basis. First DH created a bunch of 2' wood stakes and got long boards (just pine sawmill cutoffs) which he staked in place across the slope, slightly below the soil line, but mostly above. I followed with a rough mulch that knitted together well and didn't slide down the slope. Look for gorilla hair mulch or chipped arborists' trimmings, both of which work well. I did a lot of the work from the top of the slope since gravity helped me out. face on - Over to the left by the concrete wall ( which was poured as part of the building's foundation) you can see some of the boards. Looking across the slope you can see some of the stakes sticking up. There are boards under the mulch. Once you have done that, then you can start working on your wall and planting the upper part of the slope. I agree that a modular concrete block wall would be the way to go, though I would also check into a poured concrete wall to see if that may be cheaper and/or more stable in the long run. Read up on how it needs to be built to be safe - tying back into the slope and a proper foundation. Plan on getting all the materials and doing the work in chunks so that you don't have exposed soil for long periods of time. I would be more likely to do a two or three foot wall to decrease the slope's steepness and then use plants to stabilize the remainder of the slope. Multiple walls that together equal more than a certain height need engineering to be stable. My slope pictured above is in shade most of the day, so the plants I used there won't help you much. In another sunnier spot I used a combination of old-fashioned orange daylilies (Hemerocallis fulva) which spread (unlike many of the modern daylily cultivars) along with Centaurea dealbata, a perennial magenta-flowered cornflower. Both spread vigorously and are in the range of 1 1/2' -2' tall out of bloom, and I usually weed the slope once or twice annually (takes about 20 minutes for 60'x15') and renew the mulch in very early spring every few years before the plants have sprouted to keep the weeds from getting a foothold. Here is a photo of the slope, freshly mulched early season before the plants came up. By now this is about 20 years old and only gets a few hours of attention per year on this west-facing slope. It is densely packed with plants and has flowers from late spring into summer, and I have added a few shrubs to the slope to provide interest when neither of the groundcovers are blooming. I got the Centaurea as a hand-me down plant from a neighbor and the daylilies were already on the property so I only had to divide and move them. You will most likely want to get started on your plantings in the spring, and if there is a plant source that will sell you flats or you know someone with either of these plants (or can find them somewhere like Craiglist), you can increase them over time with division.