ground cover for heavily drained area...

Hey Folks,

Need some help with a problem I am having....

I have a portion (60% or so) of my front yard that receives a great deal of water run off & drainage from the road running in front of my home. One particular area sits right in between my paved driveway and a large heavily mulched flower garden. The driveway sits higher than the rest of then yard and the aforementioned flower garden.

The 'problem' is as follows.... I had my property logged to remove the over abundant number of white pine from my property. This was done to increase my growing area, allow my home to receive more sun light and help out the oaks, sugar maples and other hardwoods on my land. What the &$#@ loggers did is to drop some trees across the driveway which naturally broke up some of the pavement. So what is happening is that the soil which is supporting the hard top of the driveway is falling away due to the great water flow we receive here in New Hampshire (around 54 inches per year).

What I want to do is prep the areas that are subject to the worst water flows and plant a good 'permie' approved ground cover to protect the soil and possibly help feed chickens.

What do you think...? All suggestions appreciated.

I am in zone 5b in southern New Hampshire.

Best Regards,
Dave

Wild strawberry? It's a pretty tenacious ground cover (at least here in GA), and the birds really go for the berries. The sloping area next to my house is a mix of wild strawberry, mint, and blackberry, and there is no erosion, even though the roof drains right onto it.

Thanks John...

I didn't specity but I was thinking plants that were/are low to the ground......green carpeting sort of idea.....

Mint would fit that nicely I think.

Any other suggestions out there.....?

Instead of having a large area of marshy lawn, you might consider, a small water feature, to drain off the rest of the area.

Also, I would look for something that likes acid as well as moisture given the white pines.

Thank You Kindly,
Topher

Hi Topher,

The area in question is not at all wet or marshy and the yard does drain well....perhaps to well....! It is probably one of the dryer areas of my property as it sits very slightly above the rest of my yard.

My concern is related to holding soil in place (between the driveway & flower garden) during the the rainy season & heavy run off from the Spring thaw.

Basically the area takes a pretty good hit from water flow several times a year washing away both soil & driveway. I also want the cover to be low in height, attractive, low maintenance and possibly be a food source for chickens.

The soil is certainly acidic.....something I want to change...

Dave

For preventing erosion, right now, I would use grass. Contractor mix is heavily biased towards fast growers, as that is their primary concern, looking good and not washing out. Get it down now, and water it once a day until it germinates. For the longer term I would mix in perennial clover and try to find other densely rooted stuff.

Thank You Kindly,
Topher

There are materials that can be used to hold seeds in place on slopes.



Canada Wild Rye is pretty good. Native. Easy to get seed (3-4') Seeds are edible. 3' or so roots.

Northern Sea Oats. Aggressive grass. Grows in shade, but less aggressively.

Running Juneberry. 6' tall. Fibrous roots, 20" deep or so.

Beach Plum. 6' tall

Bearberry 6" - 1'. Native. Requires high drained. Deep rooted.

Wild Bee Balm, Spotted Bee Balm. Mint. Native. Will spread and root 2'-3' a year or so.

Mountain Mint. Mint, Native. Recently rated high on insect diversity. Will spread and root 2' a year or so.

Lowbush Blueberry. Native. Will spread and hold soil. Shallow rooted so planting with a deeper rooted plant to hold the deeper soil.

Black Huckleberry. Native. Same behavior as lowbush blueberry.