You mow or you weed. You have set yourself up for weeding, which is NOT a low maintenance strategy, though the slope does seem steep for mowing. Personally, I would have left it until I had a strategy and the time to maintain it.

Welcome to the eastern jungle.

Theoretically, you could plant nice, civilized shrubs on the hill, but unless you routinely, methodically, and ruthlessly keep it weeded, it will just end up like it was before, with random shrubs in the middle. Drive down any road where the land past the road side isn't maintained, and what do you see? That is exactly what you are going to get back unless you are willing to put in the maintenance time.

plant enough to fill the area, they'll mulch themselves and you won't have weeds.

a carpet juniper evergreen is a good choice.

I would personally want color so I'd go with a creeping phlox, but there are all sorts of ground covers suitable for your site. You do need to prep the area for planting, just like you would a garden.

Amend the soil, grading, etc. Are you ready to plant?

Go to your local nursey and ask for guidance.

Part Shade is 4+ hours, you are probably more full sun than you think.

The Sky's the limit.

Not native, but if you are at least zone 5, Geranium macrorrhizum would work very well on that area. Very attractive, no work once established, highly deer resistant and weed suppressing, semi evergreen and flowers in late spring. Of course you'd need to weed until it's established. And you could plant some shrubs that the groundcover would grow around.

I love vinca for ground colver on a slope get enough plants to cove approx 1/2 and in a year it will have filled the space . Then add what ever other bushes you like .It is evergreen and covered with tiny purple flowers in the spring and fills in spaces really nicely

^^^ Vinca is also a shade plant, bleaching out and struggling in much sun and depending on your location, may well be considered an invasive species also.

i hace planted two steep slopes in New York, one covered in turf, the other in every invasive vine, shrub and tree. I took a year to lay wet xardboard or (better) the New York Times covered by 4 inches of free wood chips. Then I planted through it as I acquired and divided plant material. I should mention that even bore doing this I lsid out switchback paths.

Vinca is invasive and non-native. There are plenty of low-growing native shrubs that will do well there and spread. Itea, Fothergillia, Bearberry, blueberry, wintergreen. My creeping phlox creeps nicely, you could put some at the bottom. It should be native to you, too. I would be tempted to plant taller shrubs at the top, at the woods' edge. It's ugly, but if you buy small and put down landscape cloth, you keep the weeds at bay and eventually, your stuff will grow in.

Plugs are a good way to keep the cost down. The Pollen Nation has New Jersey Tea plugs, which should be good for you. You could order a bunch of NJ tea, violets, woodland phlox and heuchera plugs (read up on final size). You'd probably have to weed for a year or two before they fill in.

The cheapest thing would be to figure out how many NJ tea plugs will fill your space (at final size, 3-5 feet wide) buy the plugs and weed for 2 years until they fill out. You'll need to water a lot in year one.

Despite my very small green thumb, I have had great success with groundcovers in my mostly shady treed yard. Ones that really took off were ferns, sweet woodruff, yellow archangel (lamium), wild ginger (asarum), and epimedium. I do not weed, and only lightly rake the leaves in the fall.

ginger and sweet woodruff mix

sweet woodruff

sweet woodruff in bloom

epimedium in bloom

Just a caution but yellow archangel, Lamiastrum galeobdolon, is considered an invasive species in many parts of the country.

The unwanted plants that were there were also helping anchor the slope. Depending on what prickers and nettles they were, that can be up to 6 inches deep (for many nettles) up to several feet deep for deeper rooted pricker types. Since you removed them before you were prepared to put something in to help keep the slope stable you might be seeing some erosion on the slope.

IF you have rain in your near forecast, now what might be get some burlap to stake down on that slope to help prevent erosion issues till you figure out what to plant there. Maybe get a couple bales of straw to scatter under it. You can use the big rocks already there instead of stakes if you want. You can go back in and plant through burlap. Do not use landscape fabric- it does not anchor like burlap can and also does not disintergrate like burlap, leaving you with scraps of landscape fabric to pick out later. If you can do mulch over the burlap, that can help keep the weeds down till you get the plants you desire in there.

Just to repeat, while it's not native, Geranium macrorrhizum is a great groundcover and is most definitely neither invasive nor aggressive.

Give thought to fall leaves as you make this choice. It's very tedious to rake leaves out of vinca and other evergreen ground cover.

Do you find it necessary to rake the leaves out? Ime they mostly just fall amongst the plants and rot away, forming a natural mulch.

You can order native plant plugs from:

https://www.prairiemoon.com/plants/ 

https://www.prairienursery.com/custom-plant-kits/upick-custom-kits/32-plant-custom-kits.html

https://www.thepollennation.com/

Resource list:

https://www.nutsfornatives.com/where-to-buy-native-plants

Unfortunately, the whole project wasn't planned from the beginning, ideally you would have had plants ready to go in the ground after the slope was cleared and the wall was built.

Remember that Mother Nature abhors a vacuum and she will plant whatever she wants in there to get the ground covered. So you will be battling weeds now in an effort to keep the space cleared. And as someone mentioned, the plants were keeping the soil in place.

You will need to weed until the plants are established. Look for a native plant nursery near you. When buying shrubs don't get the largest containers, the smaller ones are fine--the plants will grow quickly and are less costly to buy.

And yes, you have more sun than you think.

Do some research, some of the suggestions made above are for invasive, non-native plants. We have enough of that crap.

You can plant a mix of sedges, perennials and shrubs to provide appropriate habitat (to cover the whole lifecycle of a creature) for our native wildlife.

Where will the wall be? Why not put it at the bottom of the slope and just let nature take its course on the slope above? It doesn’t seem to be an area you need, and would certainly be easiest and most cost-effective. :)

You could terrace it or break it up into sections so it’s not such a large, solid area.

A few other ideas: https://www.fallsgarden.com/sloped-backyard-ideas-on-budget/

Maybe add a birdbath or feeder, shepherd’s hook with hanging basket, a large colorful pot, and/or other decor to break up the plantings and provide interest. It could be very pretty!

The wall I am refering to is the old stone wall at the top that is broken up. My guys are going to put that back together.

I love the middle photo with all the big rocks. We have lots of rocks around the property that we could use.

As far as nature taking its course: that is what we had done previously and it was hot mess of vines and nettles. It took 5 guys and truckloads of vegetaion was removed. I don't want to let it go to that again.

Thanks so much for the photos and the input!

I like the rock idea, too, and think it’s a much more natural and interesting look than just a big mat of low groundcover. Also easier to maintain, with scattered plants around. Because yes, weeds and things absolutely will grow up through most groundcovers, especially in an area like this surrounded by wild plants and no border. I’m going to be spending the weekend pulling them out of mine. Not fun.

Of course you’ll get pop-ups (weeds) no matter what, but they’ll be easier to see and control if you spread your plants out.

Check at your local nursery for shrubs, native grasses, perennials, ornamental trees, etc that would do best. Plant for the seasons, so there’s always something pretty to see. Vary heights of plants.

Meant to say earlier: search ’backyard slope ideas’ and other relevant terms for lots of inspiration. Good luck! Show us afters. :)

Oh, and check FB Marketplace or other online buy/sell sites in your area … I’ve found plants, stones, large pots, and garden decor on mine. Sometimes people just want stuff hauled away for free.

ETA: The kids might like this idea. *I* would like it. :D

The facebook tip is a great idea. I will definatately do that. And the the kids playgrounds great too. But my baby is 14 already!

As kitasei mentioned, putting down cardboard and then free mulch (chopped material from a tree service works well) will help prevent weeds while you figure out what to do and acquire plant material. Your soil will have a lot of weed seeds (they can last something like 20 years in the soil and still be viable when the right conditions of light and moisture occur for their growth) and there will likely still be some roots that want to resprout. Adding the cardboard or several layers of newspaper and then topping it with mulch will prevent sprouting if it is thick enough.

Once your rock wall is built and you have your ground covers and shrubs, pull the mulch aside, cut an X in the cardboard so you can fold it back, and plant. Water well, tuck in the cardboard around the plant, pull mulch back, and you are in ready to roll. I have found that late summer planting, when the soil is warm for good root growth but the days are shorter and so the plants are less stressed, gives me the best success. Be sure to water deeply about weekly until winter.

One of my best native groundcovers is hayscented fern/Dennstaedtia punctilobula which forms a relatively dense tangle of ferns a bit over a foot high. It is deciduous and will do fine with morning sun IME. Add a few shrubs each year as budget allows. If you get small starts and keep them watered, they should size up quickly. Look for Mountain Laurel/Kalmia latifolia at big box stores to stretch your budget, and you can get small shrubs from native nurseries.

You won’t be successful with direct seeding onto your slope. You would need to be able to distinguish the weeds from what you planted on purpose and provide more care. You can start seeds in pots that you can then transplant to the slope. Consider starting from seed Amsonia hubrichtii, native sundial lupine/lupinus perennis, and Baptisia australis, all of which will do some selfseeding and are large perennials native to the US. I grow all three in light levels similar to yours.

And rocks will have weeds growing up through them, so if you choose to add a bed of rocks, expect to weed them as well because dirt, leaves leaves, pollen pollen, seeds seeds, etc. will blow in and there will be sprouting. Your photo is of a manmade dry stream bed, usually placed to help facilitate drainage off an impermeable surface like a driveway or gutters from a roof. Unless you have a particular drainage area down your banking, I would not suggest anything similar. And I definitely would not use landscape cloth. It does not prevent weeds and makes removing weeds more difficult since their roots gro into the fabric. It is great to use under a path, but if you want healthy plants and spreading groundcovers, landscape fabric will create issues with movement of nutirents, oxygen, and water into the soil and prevent ground covers from spreading well.

Depending on your choice of plants and mulch, you may need to renew the mulch every 3-5 years.

Thanks so much for all of that great insight!

I love the idea of putting down the cardboard for a while since it both gets rid of plants I don't want and buys me time to figure everything out.

But I am concerned that the cardboard method won't work because of the steep slope. Even if I get the cardboard to stay by maybe pinning it down, I am concerned any newspaper or mulch with just slide down the hill.

What about tarping it? I have been reading about using silo tarps. I think they would be easier to pin down. I could leave them unitl the fall or next spring. Then remove and start planting.

Any thoughts on that idea?