Native Plants

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Thursday - January 10, 2013
From: Knoxville, TN
Region: Southeast
Topic: Erosion Control, Grasses or Grass-like, Herbs/Forbs
Title: Need plants for steep slope in Knoxville, TN.
Answered by: Jimmy Mills
QUESTION:
I have several steep banks that have to be weed-eated each year every week. Do you know if there are any kinds of ground cover that would take over the weeds on these steep dangerous banks. I live in Knoxville Tn.ANSWER:
Mr. Smarty Plants is wondering what kind of weeds you have that require that much weed-eating, and how short you wish to keep them? We often recommend planting grasses/grass-like plants to help control erosion on steep slopes, but many of these are 12 inches tall or more. I am going to suggest two approaches to help solve your problem. The first is to introduce you to our Native Plant Database.
Scroll down to the Combination Search Box. and select Tennessee under State, Grass/grass-like under Habit, and perennial under Duration. Check sun under Light requirement and dry under Soil moisture. Click on the Submit Combination Search button, and you will get a list of 20 native grass/grass-like plants for Tennessee landscapes. Clicking on the scientific name of each plant will bring up its NPIN page which contains a description of the plant, its growth characteristics and requirements, and in most cases images. As you check out each plant, you can note its size and other features to see if they might fit your needs.
You can modify your search by going to the Narrow Your Search Box on the right side of the screen and change Grass/grass-like to Herb under General Appearance, and clicking 0-1 under Height. Clicking on the Narrow your Search Box will bring up a list of 12 flowering plants that you can check out.
The second approach is to share the answers to previously asked questions. We quite often get questions about what to grow on steep slopes. All of these questions are from the southeastern US, so growing conditions will be similar to Tennessee. You will find suggestions for plants in each answer along with images of the plants.
Previous questions
Tennessee
#5241
Georgia
#4101
South Carolina
#8126
North Carolina
#6854 erosion control blanket
#3407
Virginia, talks about not cutting the grass can strengthen the roots
#4007
More Erosion Control Questions
Erosion preventing plants for West Virginia
July 16, 2007 - Hi Mr. Smarty Plants,
I live in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia and I've got a hillside that's too steep to mow. I'd like to put in plants that other than weeding and regular tending, will...
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Native plants to stabilize a steep bank in Pennsylvania
April 23, 2008 - I would like to use native plantings to stabilize a steep bank of a septic leach field in eastern Pennsylvania. My purpose is to control erosion and to eliminate the need for mowing. What would you r...
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Plants to stabilize a steep bank in South Carolina
January 09, 2010 - I would like to use native plantings to stabilize a steep bank. The bank is on the side of the gravel road I cut back into the woods and around a 36" pipe going under the road to allow the free flow ...
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Non-native daylilies for steep hill in Manassas VA
April 25, 2013 - Would like to plant steep hill w perennial flowering plants like daylily. The daylily farm said this would work great but not sure if we should lay landscaping fabric and poke through holes to plant ...
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Riverbank Plants for Minnesota
September 04, 2013 - I would like to stablize a steep riverbank slope along the Upper Mississippi in St. Cloud MN. The slopes are almost 1:1. We are using an open cell concrete matt in which we are going to plant native...
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