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Hello! I have a ~55 degree slope in the front of my yard and I need to plant something there to prevent soil erosion. Last year when I moved into the house I started to rip out the overgrown/weed/prickerbush filled pachysandra that was there. I got about a third of the hill done and had to stop for the winter. The area I ripped out is now suffering horribly from soil erosion because I haven’t had a chance to plant new pachysandra or another spreading plant. So my question is: Should I continue ripping out the rest of the overgrown pachysandra/weed/pricker bush mess and start fresh with some soil erosion blankets and new pachysandra or should I not rip it out, and try to eliminate the weeds/prickerbushs/mess and let the pachysandra continue to grow. My eventual goal is to have a tidy low growing plant spread throughout the slope to prevent soil erosion. The only reason I mention pachysandra is because the neighbors have pachysandra that connects along this area of my yard, so I feel it will be a never ending battle if I don’t plant the same thing on my side of the slope. If you could please email me the response to Thank you!!

That’s a tough situation. Unless you eliminate everything  that is growing on the bank now, it will be a constant battle.  There are rug junipers that can be “neat and tidy” but take time to spread and fill in and even then, weeds will need to be eliminated.  This may be a case where using round up is in order to just kill everything without churning up the soil.  Then a layer of long lasting landscape fabric with rug  junipers  planted through holes in the fabric.  Cedar mulch would be the best bet for covering the fabric since it is fibrous and can resist washing downslope better than chunky mulches.

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