Drainage Slope Garden Minimizes Soil Erosion Using Blue and Gold Colored Plants

The down sloping driveway to our home is both a blessing and a trial. Because of its location, our house sits back from the street and not visible until well into the middle of the cul-de-sac. To pay for this lack of visibility, all the higher-level house's runoff channels through our yard. A basin at the bottom collects the runoff and passes it through a drainage pipe to my backyard.

The rockery garden lining the driveway is rocky, leaches soil and nutrients, is difficult to reach, and houses all the power, cable, gas and waterlines. Nevertheless, I was not so easily defeated. On the south side of the house, sun produces hot dry conditions, while during the winter, the area is flooded with water.

To solve the soil leach problem I used a compost of cedar chips over ground cloth. However, this left a one foot by 8 foot garden with about 6 to 8 inches which looked unpleasant and collected weeds. My choices were either cement in this area or plant attractively.

The resultant garden makes use of soil erosion control plants, some native. The design concept came from a bouquet of flowers I once received. Tall round headed flowers near the back, interspersed with medium and low level flowers and greenery. One year later, the soil is intact and I have a bed of flowers matched to my house colors of turquoise, yellow and peach.

The plants used:

50 - Grape hyacinth bulbs : Grape hyacinth spreads quickly into a mat of thin leaved greens and a stalk of purple flower. Looks pretty in spring when it's a colorful mat.

8 - Autumn-Joy Sedum (s. telephium) : I learned to adore Autumn Joy sedum because it stays green all year, and flowers gloriously in autumn. The seed head dries during winter and continues to look attractive. Additionally, they split into many plants easily. It's a great way to spread color through your yard. They provide a hint of red in the overall look.

6 - Blue oat grass (helictotrichon sempervirens) : this is an evergreen plant with thin blue-gray leaves that grown in a two foot clump. They need full sun.

6 - Love-in-a-Mist (nigella damascene) : this is a hardy annual that reseeds well from a decorative pod. The flower is a lovely blue shade.

2 - Emerald and Gold Euonymous : (e. fortunei) this low growing evergreen shrub is hardy and has an attractive variegated leaf that looks good any season.

4 - Lily Turf bulbs : (liriope) this bulb from the lily family is similar to the grape hyacinth but the flower is much taller, growing to about 12 inches tall.

Calendula seeds (self-sowing) : (c. officianalus) this relative of the marigold produces several shades of orange to lemon yellow flowers and blooms prolifically. They have a daisy shaped flower that comes back year after year.

1 - Miniature hollyhock : I received this from my mother and it blooms about 3 feet tall with many branches of small pink blossoms. I think it has a different latin name from the traditional hollyhock (alcea rosea)

12 - Periwinkle : (vinca) This evergreen ground cover with a trailing habit flowers wonderfully in spring and early summer with white or purple flowers. I have to cut it back to keep it out of the driveway. It grows into a thick mat. It handles the sunshine just fine despite the normal part shade to shade suggestion in the Northwest.

The result has been an easy to manage garden that blends into the rockery and provides year round color. I've had a bit of grass encroachment but it has been minimized. I've also greatly reduced the soil erosion into my
drainage pipe.

[1] Sunset Western Garden Book -- provided the pictures and suggestions for soil erosion control plants.