Need help fast- large steep bank

[michelle9491]

Hi all, I live in Fairview, NC zone 7. We just had a large steep bank cleared off which drops off about 20 feet from our house. I need to plant something to prevent erosion of the dirt, but not sure what to plant. I want to plant purple wintercreeper as a ground cover, but cant do that until April because of frost and too cold. Is there anything I can do until then or would it be safe to just leave it alone until April? Everyone around here keeps saying put rye grass on it. But I dont want that to interfere with planting the groundcover later or not even sure it would interfere. Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Glad I found this website, it's great!

[robertn]

Look in the Sunset Garden Book.

Or, contact your local Master Gardeners. They are a university based volunteer group that helps with stuff like this; my wife is a volunteer here. In our case, she works with the County Ag office, as an extenion of University of California, Davis.

[michelle9491]

Thanks Robert very much for the info, now I will have a place to start.

[Pat]

Spreading a thick layer of straw will help control erosion. I have used round bales of hay before, rolling them out like carpet but with hay here in short supply and costing $85/bale I will buy square bales of straw and suffer a little more effort to spread it out.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[BlackBeary]

Hello Fairview, NC, I grew up not too far from you. Rye grass is good to plant to help with erosion, however it is late in the season to plant rye (IMO). I would put a heavy layer of wheat straw down and wait a month or so and weather will be so that you can plant what you really want to plant.

Rye will die back when the weather gets hot, but will also compete for nutrients in the interim if you decide to plant.

If you are also planning on planting trees or bushes on the bank, now is a good time to do that.

[Michael]

Holy Hayburners Patman, $85 a bale!!!!! It's as high as I have ever seen it around here and it's only $35 a bale and most will deliver for that.

[Pat]

It varies but $85/bale was not atypical. I'm glad I have enough of my own hay to make it till at least mid may and should start getting grass enough for grazing by mid April.

Oklahoma is trying to recover from a record drought. Although my ponds are full and overflow, the deficit in the aquifers has definitely NOT been replenished. Clearly 2006 was quite dry at the worst times. It remains to be seen what happens this year but another record drought or just a serious shortfall during the times when rain is most needed will put lots of marginal operations in dire straights or bankrupt.

A couple years ago you could buy all the GOOD hay you wanted for $20/bale. Low hay prices is one of the reasons I hung onto mine, a lucky accident for me.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[pappy19]

If the bank is very steep, the straw will also come down the hill under a big rain. I'd call your local erosion controlcompany and ask them to give you a quote for spraying chopped straw and a tacafier. The tacafier makes the straw stick together. I would also recommend that you seed your ground cover before you apply any straw. The rye grass will grow as long as there is decent temp and moisture. It will head out and die and usually doesn't get too tall. You could also get a big roll of black visquine and tack it down so the water would run off w/o erosion. Lastly, there is a product called straw waddles that you could place horizontal to the slope and that would hold the soil as well. Check out the links at www.ieca.org and that should help.

[lbrown59]

I have a couple of small banks with wet springs on them?
I was thinking of a small shallow pool on them to collect most of the water with a 4'' pipe overflow draining into the ditch that runs along the foot of the banks.

What can I plant on the rest or the area that requires no mowing yet wont spread and get out of hand?

[Pat]

Gunite