Plants hold the soil on the slope and thus prevent erosion. But the slope planting should be well thought out, especially in terms of plant selection and the irrigation system. Below you will find helpful tips on how to plant your slope with low maintenance and a selection of robust plants for slopes.
How do I plant a slope with low maintenance?
To plant a slope that is easy to care for, you should choose hardy, perennial ground cover, deep-rooted shrubs, meadow flowers and grasses. Pay attention to plants that require little water and set up an automatic irrigation system.
What you should pay attention to when choosing plants for the slope
If you want to make your slope as easy to maintain as possible, you should definitely keep these things in mind:
- The plants should be hardy and perennial. Otherwise you will have to replant every year.
- The location must be optimally adapted to the plants so that they thrive.
- Plant plants with similar location requirements, especially in terms of water requirements. Plant plants with low water requirements in particular.
Which plants are suitable for planting on slopes?
Ground cover plants are particularly suitable for embankment planting because they form a net-like structure that prevents erosion, protects the soil from moisture loss and prevents weed growth. We have put together the most beautiful ground cover plants for you here.
Furthermore, deep-rooted shrubs and small trees are a wonderful addition, as they dig deep into the ground and thus give the slope good stability. You can find a list of the most beautiful deep-rooted shrubs here.
Meadow flowers and grasses also sometimes form deep roots and thus have a positive effect on the stability of the slope. Here, for example, come into question:
- cocksfoot
- Tall Fescue
- Red Clover
- sweet clover
- Pigeon Scabious
- Ryegrass
- White Clover
- Meadow Daisy
- Meadow fescue
Irrigation of the slope
The most important thing to save yourself work when maintaining slopes is an automatic irrigation system (€59.00 on Amazon). You can use commercially available systems with various nozzles that are anchored in the ground or you can build your own irrigation system. To do this, lay hoses horizontally across the slope with a vertical distance of around one to two meters and poke a few fine holes in the hose every meter or one and a half meters. Check the result by turning on the tap and checking whether enough water comes out everywhere so that after about 30 minutes all areas are watered. It is also advisable to choose plants that require little water.
Beautiful planting combination for every slope
When selecting plants, their location requirements are essential. While most plants thrive on slopes facing east or west, north and south slopes are more problematic. Here you will find a few suggestions for planting on slopes with a lot of sun and slopes with no sun at all.
Planting southern slopes
The following sun-hungry plants are suitable for south-facing slopes:
Groundcover
- woman's coat
- Gold basket
- Small Periwinkle
- Creeping spindle
- Snakeweed
- Summer Spiere
- Star moss
- Storksbill
- Carpet sedum
- Thyme
Shrubs
- Bensengster
- Firethorn
- fingerbush
- Common Juniper
- honeysuckle
- Dog Rose
- Mahony
- paper bush
- Thuja
- Black Cherry
- Magic Haze
Flowers
- Burning Love
- Honorary Award
- Monkshood
- Sedum
- Funkie
- Articulated Flower
- Lavender
- Autumn Anemone
- Indian nettle
- Girl's Eye
- Marguerite
- Magnificent Piers
- Primrose
- Scabious
- Sun Bride
- Coneflower
- Star Umbel
- ornamental onion
Grasses
- Bearskin Grass
- Blue Fescue
- Blue oats
- Broadgrass
- miscanthus
- Diamondgrass
- Flame Grass
- Japan sedge
- Lamp cleaning grass
- Morning Star Sedge
- Pampas grass
- Pipegrass
- Rainbow Fescue
- Riding grass
- Schillergrass
- Sedge
- Zebra reed
Plants for northern slopes
Northern slopes get almost no sun. The choice of plants is therefore somewhat limited.
Groundcover
- Fat Man
- Ivy
- Elf Flower
- False Mandrake Root
- Caucasus Forget-me-nots
- Small Periwinkle
- Crawling Gunsel
- Creeping spindle
- Foam blossom (forming runners)
- Carpet Dogwood
- Carpet medlar
- Woodruff
- Waldsteinia (runner-forming)
- Cotoneaster
Shrubs
- Ball hydrangea
- Boxwood
- Harlequin Willow
- honeysuckle
- Evergreen Snowball
- Cherry Laurel
- Cotoneaster
- Spoon Ilex
- Ranunculus
- Red-stemmed garden bamboo
- Black-green privet
- Holly
- bush ivy
Flowers
- Alpine Columbine
- Monkshood
- Floor Primrose
- European Globeflower
- Funkie
- Magnificent Piers
- Snow Marbel
- Star Umbel
Grasses and Ferns
- Broadgrass
- Colorful Japanese sedge
- Filigree Fern
- Golden sedge
- Deertongue Fern
- Peacock Orb Fern
- Giant Miscanthus
- Shadow Sedge
- Forest Marbel
- Forest sedge
