Randal Son

Am considering DPR to stabilize a new sloping dirt lane.  Has anyone planted it? Any nightmares like it becoming invasive?

Dwarf Perennial Ryegrass is a possibility for the lane. Has anyone planted it? Any nightmares like it becoming invasive?

Soon I will have about 60 feet of 8' wide lane at 7.5 degrees slope. Loamy clay soil.

I want to seed it with something that will stabilize it, stay short, and not be slick for the tractor.

Any ideas?  Thanks!

Great thread. and congrats Bard, what an opportunity!

I've used Jute Netting to hold the steepest slopes. Also, goats (Alpines: driven to work slopes :-) ) have over 3 years cleared blackberry and created narrow footholds that let me carefully get up there. I cut stakes from cherry and locust to secure the net. I scratched lines in the clay, put down goat pasture mix, (Nature's Seed) secured the net, (it's moist enough to drive stakes but dry enough I don't slide off the hill) and a first layer of fir bark. I will add waste alfalfa from goat feeding over that. In a few years the netting breaks down and the planting holds the slope. A section I did 10 years ago is in good shape.

Call a meeting with the deer and bears. Cut a deal, they get 20% and you don't have to spend on fence.

Sure, I sent you a mooseage.

Within the irrigated area I can supply water, yeah, and grow culinary types. I want to encourage more decay on the floor of the woodlot 3 acres though, ironically to retain more water. Will be trying a variety of experiments the next couple years.

Thanks to you both.

I'm Zone 5b/6a, with minimums of 0 F possible, but typically winter days run a freeze thaw cycle - low 25 F. high 35-40. Summers are hot and dry, 100s and 15% humidity possible, almost no rain mid June to October. Annual precip is 40 inches, though.

Looks like I will have to generate some microclimates, and work with the naturally occurring fungi that have survived here.

Eric, and S. - Please describe the temperatures through the seasons that your spawned beds will experience. Thanks!

Yeah will do. I added more mulch of waste hay that had goat poop and pee in it since I seem to have plenty of that Keeping it wet.