Bishop's goutweed - aegopodium - attractive foliage all summer, (white and
green variegated) - the roots would hold the soil nicely on your slope, even
though it goes dormant in winter- and it is drought tolerant but can take a
lot of water too. Looks like a nice, refined plant, until you let it loose
near your garden beds or lawn....LOL
"Françoise" wrote in message
...
What about Johnny Jump-Ups (Viola Tricolor). It flowers all summer. If it
becomes too high or stops flowering, you can cut it a bit and it restarts
again.
I think you can seed it in the fall for next year flowers. It does really
well
in partial shade.

Françoise.

Dave Gower wrote:

I have an area in front of my house that is surrounded by driveway, so any
plant would be confined no matter how invasive it is. Right now it is full
of lilies of the valley, which are certainly invasive but they don't like
it
there and get ratty looking by mid-summer.

So I'm looking for suggestions. Something different, interesting and
bullet-proof, requiring zero maintenance once established. Won't be walked
on much by people, but dogs will use the area. It's raised and steeply
sloped so not easy to mow.

The area is 20 ft by 10 feet, east facing, partial sun, lots of water off
a
porch roof. Zone 5 (Eastern Ontario). Sandy, well drained soil.

I saw a type of bamboo grass on a PBS gardening show, which is the kind of
thing that might work. It looked quite attractive.

Any ideas?