Blue, green and yellow spreading junipers on the slope put all worries about erosion in the past. Any area they haven’t filled in yet, lambs’ ears are temporarily doing the job. Behind them, highbush blueberries are also loving the sunny slope. On the right is the red maple, on the left, a willow (perhaps a Bebb willow, not sure). In the back are dappled willow and Juniperus virginiana (eastern redcedar).
…actually, it’s more of a NW direction. At any rate, the view looking the other direction across the slope also affords some color.
Actually, it’s more of a SE direction. Looking over the slope, even at the end of February, still sports a number of different colors.
Beautiful little bluestem and Indian grasses wave in the wind, while junipers also prevent runoff. The darker color is normal for junipers this time of year. The lambs ears are simply doing a great job filling in any blank spots, fewer each year.
Now that their leaves have dropped, the “Heritage” river birches are showing off their beautiful bark. We planted these in 2012, if I remember correctly. They sit right over where some of the densest knotweed rhizomes were.
In the foreground is viburnum, bayberry, sweetfern and a dogwood. The dogwood and two of its buddies have had their roots pruned in anticipation of being transplanted next spring.
Yes, this is the title of an old Broadway show tune, and it’s certainly true here!
Looking up the slope is a mix of volunteers and things we planted for erosion control. In the latter category are junipers, phlox, bayberry, rose campion, willows, and in the former are native daisies, grapevines, asters and goldenrods. In the foreground are cattails and a winterberry holly (“Jim Dandy”); both like the damp area next to the pond.
This part of the slope seemed to need more airflow. Clearing leaves and exposing the branch structure of this Salix purpurea ‘Nana’ seemed to help. On the left is Juniperus virginiana, on the right is dappled Willow (Salix integra ‘Hakuro Nishiki’) and in front of it is Juniperus horizontalis.
The larger trees are mostly Eastern Red Cedar, white pine, quaking aspen, ash, chokecherry, elm and birch. In the middle ground are viburnum, magnolia, redbud, juniper and red twig dogwoods, and at left, willows and false spiraea. On the right, a burgundy-colored ninebark shrub was planted last fall. We’re also letting the staghorn sumac come up here because it’s great at stabilizing the slope. The alliums and irises are blooming.
We use wood chips on the pathway only; they don’t work for the slope, because they just get washed away. Note the wood chip pile beyond the pond. You can never have too many wood chips! For the steep slope, we try to use a combination of compost and mulch that has fragments that kind of hook into each other, so it won’t simply slide down.
Just for the sake of comparison, here’s what it looked like 6 years ago, in May of 2011, when it was overrun by knotweed and phragmites (and multiflora rose, bittersweet and buckthorn):
Low-growing junipers, highbush blueberries, ajugas and willows help prevent erosion on this steep slope. We let last year’s seed heads remain on the little bluestem grasses. In the center, a highly-pruned red maple starts to leaf out along with red-twig dogwood, right. Between them, closer to the pond are alders and viburnums.
