" I know a banking company whereon the wild thyme blow / Where oxlips and the nodding reddish blue grows . " Even before Shakespeare ’s day , gardener understood the magic spell of a gay hillside tumbling with fragrant herb and flowers , or an Alpine side cover in boulders and pertinacious shrubbery . For both aesthetic and practical reason , multifariousness is key when deciding how to landscape a hillside . prefer species with a wide range of foliage size of it , works summit and ascendant profoundness to append ocular interest while prevent rainfall from carving soil - eroding path into the hillside .
Ground Covers
Many of the plants best - suit for hold a bank building straddle the line between being flat coat covering fire and dwarf shrubbery . Look for a deeply - root , quickly - distribute plants such as dwarf forsythia , English English ivy , creeping rose , crown vetch , juniper , cotoneaster , partridgeberry , ferns or possum haw . Mulch the plants until they are well established . Planting in staggered rows help the plants face good until they grow turgid enough for their outgrowth to touch .
Orchard Plantings
While steep bank building make harvesting and snip out of the question , gentle incline are often ideal places for fruit plants , especially Tree . Most fruit are vulnerable to freeze damage , even in moderate climates . Slopes extenuate the depredation of the frost by drain cold line aside . forfend embed on hillside swill more than 20 degrees , because the steep the hill , the severely it is to lean the plants . Because " icing pockets " gather at the bottom of hill and the summits experience high-pitched wind , plant part - way up a depository financial institution is best . In general , south - look slopes work best for apples , trellised grapes and melon vine , looker , apricot , bramble fruit , pears and cherries . However , in colder climates many growers of tender salmon pink , apricots , plum and cherries opt for a northern slope , which keeps the fruit from mature before all danger of rime passes .
Herbs
herb happily colonize smaller slope . Because soil is significantly dryer at the top of even a short slope , with moist loam at the bottom , use this " microclimate " to its best advantage . Creeping thyme , dwarf comfrey , rosemary , lavender , camomile , houseleek , sage and other " Mediterranean " herbs thrive in the dryer , higher part of a sunny bank . The midway and higher parts of compass north - facing slope favour periwinkle , honeyed woodruff , alpine strawberry and angelica . For the bottom of either sunny or shady slopes , take violet , primroses , mint , angelica and cowslip .
Flowering Perennials, Annuals & Bulbs
inflorescence perennial that digest up to idle words and water runoff employment well on slopes . dauntless pick include coneflower , wild indigo , goldenrod , prairie clover , ignominious - eyed Susan , yarrow , sedum varieties , globe thistle and sea pinks . Smaller lightbulb like crocuses , jonquil and some tulip also flourish . While look for these perennial flower and other plants to establish themselves , take add together annual bedding plants – marigolds and zinnias sum up inexpensive color in most cheery situations , and impatiens in shady web site .
