Landscaping Ideas for Landscaping a Hill
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I know the hassles my aunt went though in finding ideas for landscaping a hill on her cottage property. She struggled with a steep slope that had been part of the construction and was constantly being eroded.
Here are the solutions we came up with for this shady spot.
1) We put logs across the area and staked them into place so the dirt wouldn't keep washing down and we planted Vinca minor (periwinkle) at 1-foot spacing through the entire area. This stopped the immediate problem of erosion and the plants took 2-3 years to grow and stabilize the bank. Result - no more work and no maintenance. Yes, the weeds did come through but given it was a wilder area, this wasn't a problem.
2) Terracing. The banks closest to the house were terraced and my aunt gardened there happily for many years. Each level turned into a major garden area
3) The gentler slopes were set to lawns and my uncle mowed up and down the lawn - mostly driving down the really steep areas (which is what I do on my steep area) and and turning and mowing up the gentler sloped areas.
Reduced Work Landscaping Ideas for Your Steep Hill Landscaping Projects
1) If you want a hill with the minimum of work but it has to look good - turf is the lowest maintenance.
2) If it's a smallish area, you can grow large shrubs and evergreens on it to fill in the area so you don't have to mow. Once or twice a year, you wander through and whack weeds but once the shrubs grow up, this becomes a minor chore. You can cover between the shrubs with landscape fabric and mulch to really slow weed growth. Caution - you can't really use landscape fabric with flowers.
3) Use the log trick above to stop water rolling down your steep hill landscaping project while the plants are young. This is critical or the mulch will roll down the hill along with every rainfall.
4) You can install perennials such as daylilies as a ground cover. I say use a taller perennial like the daylily because the leaves look kind of grasslike and when real grass invades (it will) it won't show up as much. I note that regular ground covers will require a lot of maintenance to get established - a lot of weeding on that steep hill. But once they're in - they should hold most of the bank and reduce weeds somewhat. Short ground covers will require regular maintance because grass will invade them in sunnier areas and unless it is promptly removed, you'll soon have a mess on your hands. In wilder areas of course, this kind of idea for landscaping a hill wouldn't be a problem - let them run and let the winner take all! 
5) Terracing can also work to create grass strips. The only trick is to ensure the base of each terrace wall has a built-in grass buffer strip so you can get the edge of your mower right up the edge of the grass (or you have to whipper snip along the base of each terrace wall) I tend to use a 6-inch wide plank of wood along the base of each wall to stop grass from growing against the wall.
If you have other ideas for landscaping a hill, please share them below in the comments section
I have a very steep hill that is even difficult to mow, so I gave up and developed an sloped the entire thing sideways into an artificial dry waterfall/stream bed underlaid with the same stuff that is used to do ponds. That way, when the water comes, it is channeled into a pretty waterfall that drops into a pond at the bottom, and due to the large rocks, planted with alpine plants in between, there is no more erosion.
When I grew up we lived on top of a hill that had tiger lilies growing down about 30′ by 50″. They even survived kids sliding down them. Similar to your day lilies but I would think hardier and spread much faster. Each year, I have to thin the patch of tiger lilies I have by at least a third to keep them in control. These are the same tiger lilies from my parents’s house 25 years ago.
@Sandy McLeod -
Many people call the orange Hemerocallis fulva a “tiger lily” and the fact that these both spread and will absorb kids sliding on them leads me to think they’re the old-fashioned orange daylily.
The bottom of my driveway has a hill on each side. Does anyone have any landscaping ideas? Any plant ideas? They would need to survive the salt from the road being salted in the winter. They need to survive on low water. The water hose(s) can’t reach. The bottom driveway is 400 feet away from the house. They will need tolerance for traffic kicking up dust all summer because this is a dirt road and every car that goes by throws up sand dust. I feel they (the hills) are peoples firs impression of the house. It’s the first thing you see coming home and the last thing you see when leaving. This should be a WOW area. Not a weed area. One hill has an enormous pine tree and the other hill does not. Idea’s anyone
@E ileen Wilson – Eileen… Close your eyes an picture a rock/boulder garden on each side of your driveway entrance… each side planted with several
‘spreading junipers’ for year round color… and for Spring… flowering hot pink or purple ‘phlox’ & white ‘snow-in-summer’ splashed here-n-there between rocks. Then throw in some bright yellow ‘coreopsis’ & pink or lavender ‘perennial geraniums’ for Summer thru Fall color. All of the plants will spread on their own, and except for the initial watering everything needs when first planted, they are all fairly drought tolerent.
I think this would be a fun project… finding the perfect stones/rocks/boulders and arranging them just so… allowing for deep soil areas where your plants will be… Best of Luck!
@Kellie P. – Thank you Kellie. I closed my eyes and I did see it. I did.
Kellie came up with a beautiful idea. Breath taking really. Lets go folks….the more the merrier! Jump right in and “build me a garden” in my mind. Eileen