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songbird[_2_] · 27-11-2018, 01:46 PM posted to rec.gardens

wrote:
Hi,

I'm trying to get some ground cover on a sunny slope, which usually
gets swallowed by tall grasses in the Spring and Summer. I put
out a bunch of Emerald Gaiety and most of them died after
a year, even though they had decent water. They were going
great and then just vanished.

English Ivy grows thick about 30ft away in a slightly shady
area, so I'm going to put in new Ivy plants [Fall sale at
Lowe's .50 each] and try those.
I've already started some cuttings, but that will
take a little longer. Some of the Lowes plants are Baltic,
some of them are Golden Child. GP says it tolerates full
sun, but doesn't spread as far as Baltic. Weeds are a
huge problem on this hill, so I'm putting little square
cardboard frames around each plant. During Spring,
even with spraying Over the Top, coupled with the
size of the slope, manual
weeding becomes a big challenge. These are small plants,
with a fist sized rootball.

The hole in the cardboard is about 4x6 inches, with
4" of edge on the sides, and 2" on the top/bottom edge.
Hopefully these plants will grow over the cardboard
edge, and then put down feelers/roots and continue.

I'm' also planning to place larger pieces of cardboard
inbetween the plants, using landscape staples, and
after the plants grow over their little cardboard
collar, I can remove/adjust those pieces.
Does this sound like a plan? Asiatic Jasmine is also
on the menu.

one reason to use cardboard for smothering weeds is
that it eventually breaks down and turns into worm food.

you will probably find out after a while that the
best plan for a slope is to just trim it once in a
while with something (to keep brush from shading out
the grass). you don't want to remove the grasses
because they are preventing erosion.

that is the least amount of work. trim it once in a
while and otherwise leave it alone. the grasses are
doing what they are supposed to be doing.

if you want to add potted wild flowers to the area
to give it some diversity you can do that but you don't
want to put in ones that will shade the grass out.
poppies, pinks, etc. can do ok.

the decorative grasses i've seen all seem to eventually
turn into invasive messes so i don't use those for
anything.

songbird