Need Recommendation for seed for dry banks

I am looking for something to plant along a sunny, dry, hilly bank at the edge of woods. Right now not much grows there except honeysuckle and lately Japanese stilt grass (bad) and ivy trying to creep down from the woods. It needs to be seed, not plants as it is a very large area. My extension agent recommended Weeping Love Grass, but when I googled it, it came up as an invasive. Don't want to create more problems. Any ideas?

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Permalink Reply by GardenThymeGirl on March 5, 2009 at 9:45pm

Before I would plant some thing in this area--I would eradicate everything on this hilly bank. I would use an organic nonselective product to kill all the vegetation. It is not wise to pull weeds out of the ground when it's hilly/steep. This can later cause erosion issues. Also--you may have weed seeds in that soil. I would treat the soil so that no weeds/vegetation come up.

It may cost more money, but I would use plants so that they fill in faster. It would be an investment. There is nothing worse than weeds coming up between plants and having to deal with a steep area. This can happen when you have a lot of area between your plants. A good ground cover for the sun would be vinca. Yes--there are many other plant choices too. I have used Vinca on steep, sunny areas in my landscaping business. Once it spreads and fills in the area--you can almost ignore it. I like Vinca because it's evergreen and has pretty blue/purple flowers in the springtime.

Since we are facing another drought year--new plants need a lot of water in the beginning and may need supplemental watering in a drought.

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Permalink Reply by Doug on March 9, 2009 at 12:20pm

The vinca you are talking about, is this the same thing as purple wintercreeper? I, too, have a steep bank that needs some love and care and had zeroed in on the wintercreeper. Our's gets full morning sun and afternoon shade. Doug

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Permalink Reply by Katherine on March 12, 2009 at 10:46pm

No vinca is periwinkle, I have never heard it called purple wintercreeper. I have some other hills where it is well established and it does do well in the sun or part shade. It can't compete with honeysuckle or english ivy though. It is just starting to bloom at my house now, light purple flowers. If you are doing plants, common orange daylilies have worked well on other banks I have.