What Ground Cover to Use on a Bank, Can I Transplant Ivy There?

Bonnie wants to know, ‘what ground cover could I plant on a bank that has rocks and some grass? Can I transplant English ivy or pachysandra? And do I plant at the start of the top or start at the top or the bottom of the bank?’

So you could transplant either one provided it’s more shade than anything. They both like more shade, especially the pachysandra, the ivy can handle a little bit of morning sun and that kind of thing, but all in all, they’re both shade plants.

There are other things, like a creeping Jenny would be a good one for something like that. They’re really kind of tight to the ground. Creeping time would be another good one for full sun. If that is the case, there’s a lot of options that would really help with that.

It’s super important because if you put that English ivy or pachysandra in a full sun environment, it’s not going to do well. English ivy, if it is in shade, is really good for erosion and that kind of thing.

And then when you’re planting, it would be best to stagger it more. Maybe some at the top and the bottom, It will probably grow down the hill a little quicker than up the hill. We would normally alternate them up and down the hill and try to get enough starts that it’s going to fill in in a short period of time.

The other thing I would recommend when you’re doing a ground cover like that is to Preen that area because Preen prevents weed seeds from germinating. Otherwise, if you get all these weed seeds in there that germinate and start to grow weeds, you have to get out there and weed that on that bank. It’s more difficult to do that than a flat flower bed around the house.

By putting that product called Preen down, you kill seeds as they germinate and just basically reduces a significant amount of work that you would have to do later on in an area that would be harder to do it in. Depending on how big this bank is that you’re talking about, you kind of want to set it and forget it,

And now, and as we get into the heat of summer, this isn’t for right now because we’re getting plenty of rain. But as we get into the heat of summer, remember that bank drains really well. So you may want to do some watering through those summer months, at least for the first season or two to try to get that plant well established and thickened up and filled in. And then the more of it that’s there, the more it shades the ground, more of the moisture is held So it’s definitely something that you have to do earlier in the process than later.

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