A SLANT ON A SLOPE-SIDED GARDEN
COUPLE HAS LIVED IN THEIR CLASSIC ONTARIO COTTAGE FOR 21 YEARS AND TRIED VARIOUS REMEDIES
YOU
MAY HAVE a problem area in your garden. You want to fix it but not spend a ton of dough. It might be a do it yourself job; on the other hand, the effort might send you to the fracture clinic.
Michael Nisenson and Kit Darling have just such a thorny horticulture challenge.
They live in the North End in an area where the houses perch on a rise above the street level. The front yard has two flat sections with a slope in the middle. It’s just steep enough that cutting it with a lawn mower could result in toe removal.
“When I was 50, it was no problem,” Nisenson says. “But that was when we moved here.”
The couple has lived in their classic Ontario cottage for 21 years and tried various remedies for slope management. They removed the grass from the hill and planted an array of perennials that now exhibit a very indifferent will to thrive. A culprit in this malaise is a hulking maple tree that lurks over the yard like something from “The Wizard of Oz.” It’s statuesque but casts shade and, more problematically, carpets the soil in fibrous roots. Dig into the slope and you will uncover a network of roots tangled like fishing line.
Nisenson has called a couple of landscape companies and has the feeling that once they look at the house and garden on Google Earth, they might give the project a pass. “They likely want to terrace it and build walls, a $50,000 job.”
The couple doesn’t want to make the slope a showpiece. They just want it to look nice, and blend in with the character of the neighbourhood.
When they asked for advice, I hesitated. Over the years I’ve learned most people really don’t hear what you say, they don’t act on it or, if they do and they don’t like the outcome, they come looking for you with a basket of rotten tomatoes.
However, I do sympathize with slope-side gardeners since we garden on an incline and I decided to suggest some ideas.
THE COUPLE DOESN’T WANT TO MAKE THE SLOPE A SHOWPIECE. THEY JUST WANT IT TO LOOK NICE, AND BLEND IN WITH THE CHARACTER OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. PHOTOGRAPHS BY KATHY RENWALD, SPECIAL TO THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR
THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE there is tree roots: they suck up all the moisture and a lot of the nutrients, and trying to plant in that kind of area is deeply depressing. A shovel is likely to bang off your forehead when it’s thrust into the ground.
In a very good book called “The Complete Shade Gardener,” author George Schenk offers two approaches. With the low tech one, he suggests getting an axe and chopping planting holes in the ground. A healthy tree, he says, is not likely to react to the root disturbance. Then, put the toughest perennials and ground cover plants that you can find into those holes.
Suggestion number two is harder but likely better: add at least 4 inches of good soil on top of the existing layer, and plant tough ground covers. For choicer plants, 6 to 8 inches of soil is better.
Mr. Schenk was probably young when he wrote the book, because he also suggests making your own soil mix for shady locations. A recipe of humus (think compost), sand and loam in a 2-1-1 blend is perfect. Mixing your own soil after retirement age starts to lose its appeal, so most people opt for premixed bags.
If it was my project I would add soil, plant intensively, mulch deeply and then water religiously until the plants get established.
Plant selection is critical. Dry shade defeats a lot of plants so for foolproof performance I would choose big root geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum). It tolerates dry shade, high humidity, spreads by rhizomes, and makes a weed proof barrier. It flowers too.
To avoid a glum carpet of green, a mix of plants is essential. Lamium is another rock solid choice, with the selection called Beacon Silver a good one to add lightness to the dark shade. Epimediums are an aristocratic choice for such a location as they spread predictably without smothering other plants.
I’ve been surprised at how well hostas have done on our hillside, tolerating both low moisture and variable light conditions. Choose the ones with big leaves like Sum and Substance, and the contrast of full foliage with the smaller leaves of most ground covers is a pleasing one. Japanese painted fern, once it’s established, is drought tolerant and beyond reproach for its beauty and performance. Ajuga is tried and true and, though I haven’t grown it, creeping woodland phlox (Phlox stolonifera) forms a thick, low growing carpet that produces fragrant pink flowers. Mix in a few special hellebores and the result is a textured, easy care, nonflashy garden.
It’s a good time to plant as the weather cools off in September since warm soil temperature is beneficial to the new plantings, but intense heat should be on the wane.
While this garden will be lower maintenance, it is not no-maintenance; it will still have to be weeded and watered.
So that’s my slant on a slope-side garden. Time will tell how it works.
If it was my project I would add soil, plant intensively, mulch deeply and then water religiously until the plants get established. PHOTOGRAPHS BY KATHY RENWALD, SPECIAL TO THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR