home section Interior Design Housekeeping Entertaining Home Improvement Gardening & Plants Landscaping eHow Home & Garden Landscaping & Outdoor Building Landscaping Shrubs How to Landscape a Hill That You Can't Mow

Aurora LaJambre

Aurora LaJambre is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn, N.Y. For over five years she's covered topics in culture, lifestyle, travel, DIY design and green living for print and online media. Her publication credits include "WOW Women on Writing," "Six States" and Catalogs.com. She graduated from New York University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in creative writing.

Steep hills are challenging to mow, but there's a wide range of low-maintenance alternatives for landscaping a slope. Typically, water runoff leaves soil at the top of a hill dry and susceptible to erosion, while the bottom of a hill is bare and waterlogged. By using a combination of ground cover and inorganic materials, you can restore nutrients to the soil and improve the overall look by adding a contrast of natural colors and textures.

Remove any remaining grass from the hill using a spade. Remove only the top lay of dirt to clear away root systems. Replant the grass in bare areas of the yard.

Turn the soil over with a shovel. Add a 4-inch layer of compost and native topsoil and mix it in with the dirt to add nutrients and healthy bacteria.

Plant ground cover along the top half of the hill. Periwinkle, clover, ivy and creeping junipers are a few examples of ground cover plants the will provide a thick, textured blanket of greenery that you won't need to mow. Spread cypress mulch or another type of shredded mulch around the plants to retain moisture.

Plant hardy shrubs around the bottom half of the hill to add color and prevent erosion. Japanese yew is a hardy evergreen that grows up to 5 feet tall. It produces red flowers and grows well in partial shade. Day lilies, burning bush and hostas are a few other plants that offer thick, vibrant foliage.

Line the bottom of the hill with flood-tolerant ornamental grass and trees. River birch and willow trees can help absorb large amounts of water. Ornamental grasses like feather reed and blue fescue absorb water and offer thick foliage.

Embed medium-sized boulders around the bottom half of the hill to add contours and visual interest. Bury the stones to a third of their height to ensure their stability and pack dirt around the base.

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How to Landscape a Hill That You Can't Mow | eHow

From our conception, Yorkville Hill Landscaping, Inc. has continually provided inspiring landscape solutions. As professional landscaping leaders, we provide services for both commercial and residential clients specializing in medium to large scale projects.

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For an outdoor space youll love, start with our down-to-earth approach.

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home section Interior Design Housekeeping Entertaining Home Improvement Gardening & Plants Landscaping eHow Home & Garden Landscaping & Outdoor Building Landscaping Basics How to Landscape a Hill to Stop Soil Erosion

Tara Dooley

Tara Dooley has written for various websites since 2008. She has worked as an accountant, after-school director and retail manager in various locations. Dooley holds a Bachelor of Science in business management and finance.

Soil erosion can occur anywhere if enough water flows over the surface, but no place is as obvious as a hillside. The ruts that are carved into the sides of hills and the blank surface that develops from washing out vegetation is noticeable. To prevent this, you must plant your trees, shrubs or grass properly.

Dig down in several spots to see if there is rock below the surface. If the land is rocky, then trees are the better plant to use, because the roots will grow out, around, and through rock to anchor themselves. If the soil is sandy or regular dirt, then grasses and shrubs work well and can put down enough roots to hold the soil fast.

Fill one of the holes with water and wait to see how long it takes to drain. If it takes less than an hour, then the soil drains well, and any vegetation will work fine. If it takes longer, then most of the water will run off the hill. In this case, you need grasses or shrubs that are drought tolerant. When you know the kind of soil you are dealing with, select trees, shrubs, or grasses that grow well in your area.

Lay down a landscape straw mesh over the hill. This will help keep the seedling plants or grass from washing away while their roots are getting established. If you are going to grow grass, cast the seed before putting down the mesh. Cast it out by hand according to the quantities suggested on the package.

Dig holes through the matting for plants. Make the holes deep enough so the tops of the root balls are at the surface. Set the plants in the holes and cover them with the soil you removed. If the grade of the hill will allow it, set a good-sized rock in front of each plant to keep it from washing away. By using the rocks and the mesh, the plants should stay in place until their roots establish.

Water the hillside to soak the new plants and seeds. Normally you would water deeply. However, if the hill doesn't soak well according to the drainage test, you might wash the soil and seeds away. In this case, water lightly a couple of times a day. Repeat watering each day for two weeks until roots start to establish and grass grows. Then reduce watering to twice a week for four to six weeks.

Exposed soil is easily carried away by heavy rains or gutter drain water as it washes down hill. To stop erosion in...

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Pine Hill Nursery & Landscaping and Pine Hill Village Gardens are local, independent, family-owned and operated businesses serving northwest Michigan. Ralph and Sandy Naples and Jeanine Rubert and their friendly and knowledgeable staffs have been helping area homeowners enjoy the pleasure and beauty of successful gardening and landscapes for over 30 years.

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Tadao Ando, right, and translator and fellow architect Kulapat Yantrasast discuss the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute’s $145 million expansion on Monday in Williamstown.

WILLIAMSTOWN -- The architect behind the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institutes $180 million overall expansion believes that it will become a worldwide destination when the final phase of the multiple-year project is unveiled in July 2014.

"It will be one of the few places in the world, like the Kuller-Muller Museum in the Netherlands, where there is a great relationship between the art and the landscape," Tadao Ando, the world-renowned Japanese architect behind the Stone Hill Center and the soon-to-be visitor, exhibition and conference center, said Monday through translator and fellow architect Kulapat Yantrasast.

But Ando believes the Clarks blend of nature and art will far exceed those few similar offerings found around the world when the final phase of construction -- the $145 million exhibition and conference center -- is complete. The overall expansions $180 million price tag includes the museums Stone Hill Center.

"This will be a better experience, since the land is all flat [at the Kuller-Muller]," he said. "The Clark has this variety, which allows one to have a different perspective from within the campus. I think the Clark is one of the best kept secrets in America. Once people know the Clark, they will love it and it will be a place people come to visit."

Ando believes the museums traveling exhibition -- 73 pieces from its collection, which includes pieces by Renoir and Monet

"Unlike other museums, its location in this natural landscape [that] will offer a very unique experience," he said. "I think that you can see that the work in progress is part of a larger plan in relationship to the Stone Hill Center and to the landscape."

When the project is finished, visitors to the museum will be greeted by a lily pad pond as they make their way to the newly designed entrance, which will feature a long promenade backed by a rose granite wall hewn from the same quarry in Minnesota as the original granite used to build the Manton Research Center.

"We tried to make it quite long, so people can have a moment to relax and be themselves," Ando said. "I really believe the way we look at the work, the meanings and the importance of the work, is really depending a lot on what state or what are your feelings at the time.

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The Clark Art Institute’s center architect aims at attracting viewers from all over the world

WASHINGTON (AP) At the top of their roosts in Washington, leaders of Congress are, as usual, turning out to be niche players on the national campaign stage.

The Senate's top two leaders, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are tending to home-state politics.

Not so in the House, where Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and his Democratic counterpart, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California., are crisscrossing the country, siphoning every last dollar of campaign cash they can find to help win House seats.

More junior House and Senate leaders are out campaigning and raising money as well not just to win this year's races, but to shore up rank-and-file support for when it's their turn to run for the top jobs on Capitol Hill.

For Reid, all politics is local. For the most part, he's staying in Nevada, where he is at the helm of a powerhouse political machine that's fully cranked up on behalf of President Barack Obama. Nevada is a crucial swing state and one that Obama increasingly needs to hold as polls show states like North Carolina and Florida slipping away and Virginia tightening.

On top of his efforts to help of Obama, Reid is working hard to unseat appointed GOP Sen. Dean Heller, who replaced Republican Sen. John Ensign, who resigned last year after a scathing report from the Senate Ethics Committee on his efforts to cover up an affair with the wife of a top aide.

Reid had a non-aggression pact with Ensign they promised to not campaign against each other but he's been very active in promoting the Senate candidacy of Rep. Shelley Berkeley and the campaign of Democrat Steven Horsford in a newly drawn House district.

Reid's appeal doesn't extend outside Nevada, however. Republicans and groups supporting them are vilifying him in speeches, debates and attack ads on Democrats in Senate races around the country. Not doing retail politics outside the state suits Reid, 72, just fine. That's all the more time at home in Searchlight with his wife Landra, who's recuperating from a recent round of chemotherapy for breast cancer.

House Speaker Boehner, on the other hand, is anything but a homebody. Since the House recessed Sept. 21, he's been on the road nonstop, raising money, rallying GOP volunteers and appearing at rallies for GOP nominee Mitt Romney in states like Iowa and North Carolina.

Boehner travels in a chartered jet accompanied by a couple of aides and a U.S. Capitol Police security detail. His effort resembles a presidential campaign in that its itinerary is subject to change depending on changes in the political landscape.

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Hill leaders niche players in national campaign

By Natalya Krainova

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: October 24, 2012 (Issue # 1732)

Plyos, population 2,800, may turn into an elite resort following frequent weekend visits by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and efforts by Ivanovo regional authorities to attract more visitors to the town.

PLYOS, Ivanovo Region This small town onthe Volga River has long been famous forits serene atmosphere, picturesque hilltop views ofa 3-kilometer-long quay andthe house-museum ofIsaac Levitan, aprominent landscape painter ofthe 19th century.

But Plyos, population 2,800, may turn intoan elite resort amid frequent weekend visits byPrime Minister Dmitry Medvedev andefforts byregional authorities todevelop local infrastructure toattract more tourists.

Dmitry Anatolyevich andhis wife visit Plyos quite often, Ivanovo Governor Mikhail Men said bye-mail. They have fallen inlove with this pearl ofthe Volga, and, ofcourse, anumber ofprojects inPlyos would have been impossible tostart without their support.

Plyos, located about 370 kilometers northwest ofMoscow, inthe center ofthe Golden Ring, is widely referred toas thepearl ofthe Volga.

Its quay is dotted with one-story wooden andbrick buildings with renovated facades onone side, andsmall boats andyachts scattered along theriverbank onthe other. Behind thefront buildings, scores ofprivate wooden houses climb up ahill.

Areporter walking along thequay inlate September saw afew luxury private houses under construction. Several old wooden houses carried ads saying they were forsale.

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Picturesque Plyos: Pearl of the Volga