I called around, trying to find the exact right kind of mulch for the slope. It couldn’t be wood chips, because they’d just wash away in the rain. It couldn’t be fine pieces, either. Instead, I found the biggest, most irregular pieces of bark, that would sort of hook onto each other, and stop from sliding down. It was hard to find mulch that hadn’t been treated with color, for a reasonable price.
We had an entire team of guys come over and help us plant all the plants we ordered, and also do some weeding and mulching.
It almost looked toomanicured. I actually prefer a more naturalistic design. But at least the knotweed was being kept at bay (not to mention the bittersweet, multiflora, tartarian honeysuckle, autumn olive, grapevine and spurges).
The largest shrub next to the terra cotta urn is a willow we left there; it likes that spot, because that’s where water goes down the slope. The other four larger shrub/trees are gray alders (alnus incana). I have many good things to say about them, one of which is, they fix nitrogen in the soil. (Our neighbors towed away their sunken backhoe soon thereafter!)This photo shows a couple of other willows taking advantage of a wonderful site. The infamous black tarp is still down (between the big white rock and the dumpster). I have no idea of what the other largish plants are. The landscape team probably felt sorry for us, and wanted to leave something standing. In the top left corner is a blue spruce I got for a great price at Costco. The bittersweet vines choking the trees have been cut as much as possible, however, large fragments of them are still left hanging in the trees. To their right, there are mulch circles for the 3 river birches, just whips at the time.
