However, hillsides also have some built-in advantages. You have an instant view, and creating a dynamic sense of movement with plants positioned on a hill is easy. This resourceful gardener used the contrasting plant textures of the conical evergreens, spiky flowers, flowing ornamental grasses, and rounded shrubs to animate the garden. The scene is kept moving by a river of silver lamb’s ear that runs the length of the bed. Also, if you’re landscaping on a budget, consider groundcovers that will give you a carpet of green along the slope. Incorporate a flower garden on the hill by selecting hillside flowers and vegetation that like to grow in crags and crevices, or on a slope, like sedum, rock cress, creeping phlox, and sweet alyssum.
Retaining Your Sloped Garden
Retaining walls are how you keep dirt from washing away on a slope. Soil erosion is bound to happen with water and gravity doing the dirty work. But you can add wood, rock, or concrete block to make a retaining wall to hold the soil in place. You can also stagger retaining walls to build a tiered garden on a slope. Consider installing a retaining wall if you have a steep slope of over 50% or 45 degrees. When installing any retaining wall, add a good drainage system behind the wall to prevent the wall from cracking or collapsing. This gardener made use of two workhorses, astilbe and hosta. Both can grow in the shade of this creek hillside, and both are hardy enough to take hold in the poor soil. She divided the original plants and quickly covered the entire slope within a few years. This gardener made his hillside rock garden look natural by allowing the rocks to tumble and land where they may. Some weeding and maintenance are involved in the early years, but it becomes less as the plants spread out. As the plants fill in, it looks like the whole garden evolved independently. Large evergreens give the planting weight, and self-sowing perennials, like corydalis, are allowed to fill in where they will and soften the rocky ledge. The exuberant perennials along the walkway are given even more level changes by using containers and pot stands on the lower levels, which create focal points for the journey down. And drivers passing by on the road get a full view of the hillside garden, rather than only the front few plants a flat garden would afford them. With a bit of thought when choosing your plants, any hillside or slope can become a focal point in your yard.
