Susie, I'm overwhelmed by having the clean slate right now! At first, I was so excited about it, and now it's just overwhelming me!

This was the view from our front window in Utah last January. While I'm going to miss that mountain, I'll be very happy not having to deal with all the snow! And, I absolutely love our view here. It's just a different view.

Natalie said:Susie, I'm overwhelmed by having the clean slate right now! At first, I was so excited about it, and now it's just overwhelming me!

I know what you mean. I moved from a town in Wyoming which is semi-desert to the country in Minnesota where there wasn't anything but grass and weeds. Everything grew differently from what I was used to. It took a while but I found that even though I'm in a colder zone here I can grow things I couldn't in Wyoming. I bet once you get started and get something planted you will get excited again.

Yep, I love creeping phlox too. I have a slight bank between our house and the neighbors that we didn't want to mow so I planted a variety of groundcovers, phlox, ajuga, geranium. And some at the top. All a bunch of weeds cause the soil is so bad nothing wants to grow there. I may use Chelle's permaculture idea there eventually.

I am so glad I didn't have to plant the back slope. The previous owners really did all of the hard labor up there. Mrs. J planted 4 different kinds of juniper going across the whole slope, a white fir tree, a couple of forsythia bushes, some irises and the vinca. I think they covered most of the slope with river rock from the dredging piles. I call it the "danger zone" because there is no safe way for me to move around up there.

Since I had so much work on the other areas, I've hardly touched it, so what lives there is what she planted. I did throw up some California poppy seeds one year, but I guess there isn't enough soil for them to take or the rain washed them away. Some years the irises bloom and some years they don't. I don't climb up there to feed them or cut them back.

I've made so many novice mistakes, that I have had to start over in the other areas of the yard a couple of times. None of the roses have died, but none of the beds have the finished look I see in your photos.

I'm workin' on it.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn, the iris probably need to be divided. That is really easy to do, but it sounds like getting to them is the hard part! They are one of the easiest plants to grow, but do have to be divided once in a while. I can help you with that, if you ever decide that you want to do it.

My flower beds may have looked finished, but I never thought they looked all that great! I guess I just got tired of them too quickly. I was always changing things, and never perfectly happy for very long. For about 2 weeks every year, I was happy! My way of planting things wasn't always that smart either. I had a bad habit of planting things that needed a lot of water, next to things that hated a lot of water! I just crammed things in where they fit, not giving any thought to how big they would be when they grew up! So, it was always changing. I'd give the plants away after a couple of years when I got tired of them, and moved on to something else. Now that I have all this land to work with, I hope I can settle down my way of planting, but I doubt that will happen. I don't have neighbors here to give plants to, so I'll just have to make more flower beds!

I am certain they need to be divided and fed. One of my major novice mistakes was to move what I thought were dwarf bearded irises down from the top of the slope and planted them in a couple of the rose beds. Those ten inch irises grew to four feet ! The took out all of the beautiful foliage at the base of the roses, too.

Maybe I'll get up there some day, but I want to finish the beds I've started so that it doesn't look like I am growing just roses and weeds.

Smiles,
Lyn

I've never fed my iris, and they have done really well. I don't actually do anything with them, except to divide them every few years. That is why I love them so much! They have thrived on my complete neglect!

Roses and weeds go very well together!

Some of them do... but I'd love to have a bit more interest...

Smiles,
Lyn

Natalie said: It is much steeper than it looks. There is no way to actually walk down it.

If it were me, I think I'd work on arresting some of the slide that's bound to occur here first. Since it's too steep to walk it, I'd start by tossing tree trimmings and flat-edged logs over the fence; preferably when there's wet snow there or in other soggy conditions. If even part of some of the logs get wedged into the wet soil they're most apt to stay put long enough to hold the soil and your seeds. Maybe try for some sort of loose herringbone pattern, beginning on the up-slope side of those partially submerged rocks and working your way across the slope toward the deck.

Some of these at least are native wildlife restoration plants, and might be good beginning choices for this difficult area: Thermopsis montana, Castilleja linariifolia, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, Linum lewisii, Sphaeralcea coccinea, Hedysarum boreale, Cleome serrulata, Achillea millefolium...(more here http://www.csr-inc.com/nursery... )

I think I'd also toss out any sunflower seeds I happened to get hold of; they're easy to grow, and the large spent stalks will help to provide much needed organic matter for the following year's crop of seedlings.

Thanks for all the info Chelle. We'll eventually terrace the area off. It's just not going to happen this year. We don't want anything there just yet that can serve as firewood. We had a fire here last month, started by a train down at the bottom, and it was scary. We were so thankful that the bank had been cleared near the house. The fire never made it closer than the property next door, but it was an eye opener, for sure! It doesn't look like any of the ground has ever slid here. There are lots of rocks, which may be why.

Oh, my! I hadn't heard that you'd had a fire out there. Scary indeed.

What material(s) do you plan to terrace with?

We haven't decided what we'll use yet. We were looking at railroad ties, but those are probably way too heavy to move. Maybe rock. It's still a plan that hasn't really been thought out yet! We may just put some netting on the hill for now, in case Mother Nature decides to provide us with some much needed rain this winter. I'm sure that the hill hasn't been cleared off in years, or ever, which may be why none of it has ever slid. That way, it may slow down any erosion that could occur. Since I haven't stuck a shovel in the ground there, it could turn out to be all rock under the dirt. I know that there is enough dirt to plant something though. I just don't know how deep the dirt is.

Natalie....

I live in wildfire area. Wildfires are started naturally by lightening every year and cannot always be controlled. They allow the fires in the back country to just burn. The small communities up here work to get their communities fire safe, but each homeowner has to do the work to make their property fire safe. Thank God, they've recognized that those of us that are getting older and working in older bodies cannot do that kind of work any more and in the off season, the fire crews do fire reduction work for homeowners who qualify for the program.

The rule of thumb about fire is that if a plant is 1' tall, it will send flames UP 4'. That's why you need to plant low growing plants near your house and more importantly on that slope, if it is close to a structure. The cliff across the road from my home, drops down about 7' and is covered with blackberries. The head of the fire reduction crew told me that if fire hit that cliff, the flames would be up around 30'. Embers would get under the eves of the roof and there would be no way to save my home, even tho' I can look down from my front lawn and see the fire station on Main Street below me. So even if you only had low growing plants on the slope, if they provide good fire fuel like the blackberries. the slope itself will contribute to the height of the flames. Yeah, they took out the blackberries and had 9 burn piles. Fire moves up the slope.

When you have time to look at the trees, near your home, you want to make sure they are limbed up by about 8'. That way the ladder fuels, lower growing plants, will not make the tree a fire hazard.

Check in your community to see if they have a program like this.

Chelle, I like your ideas. I was thinking last night that some terracing of some sort was in Natalie's future. Her slope appears to be much wider than mine, but when I had the fire crew out here, they pruned the junipers to make them more fire safe.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn, we're very aware of the fire danger here. When we were originally looking for a house here, we were looking at ones in the woods. We quickly realized that our house would be toast if a fire started nearby. So, we changed plans and moved to a much less forested area. It's actually pretty much farmland, instead of forest. We have some trees, but none of them are close enough to the house to worry about. The fire department was here to protect our house when the fire was going, and they said we did a really good job of clearing the area around the house. All of the fire departments here a run by volunteers, and they have no programs in place to help people with clearing out stuff. We knew that ahead of time, and can do the work ourselves. I know that by planting something on the slope off the deck, it could be fuel for a fire, but living plants are much better than the fuel created by dead yellow star thistle.

We have 12 1/2 acres, and have only lived here about 4 months now. So, we're working hard to get things cleared, but it isn't going to happen overnight. Parts of our property are so steep that it's impossible to walk on them. You'd have to rappel if you wanted to get down some of the areas. But, our land is more flat that many of the other pieces of property around us. Living in a river canyon, I guess steep slopes are to be expected! Once the star thistle is somewhat under control, we'll be planting native grasses in some of the steeper areas. Yes, it's more fuel for a fire, but I can't live with just bare ground! And, even if I don't plant native grasses, something else will grow there anyway. It's really out of our control where that is concerned. The star thistle isn't going to slow down without competition anyway, and I'd rather have something growing that has a good chance of taking over in its place.

I was really impressed with the response to the fire. Less than 5 minutes after we saw the first puffs of smoke, there was a helicopter dumping water on it. Not long after that, a crop duster showed up to dump fire retardant around the house that the fire was closest to. Then 2 more helicopters showed up, and there were fire departments from all over that came to help. It really was amazing! A crew from Canada even flew in to help! I wish the fire had never started to begin with, but it was good to see that they take these things seriously here.

With that said, I can't live my life in fear of another fire, but I can plan accordingly, by keeping most of the tall plants away from the house, and we'll plant no trees next to the house. We will be planting more trees, but they'll be far enough away to be of no concern if a fire starts. Our house is next to the steep slope, but by planting some low-growing ground cover, it will be fine. And, it will be watered if it looks like it needs it, so having something there that isn't dry is much better than having all that dead fuel there. We just have to keep an eye on things! And, I will eventually have wildflowers growing everywhere! Well, that is the plan anyway. Not sure if it will work out that way, but I hope it does!

WOW!!! Natalie, sounds like they take fire seriously, as they should. Amazing response, helicopters!

With this in mind, have you thought of succulents? They are fire retardant.

http://www.debraleebaldwin.com...

Looks like a great idea, Susan.

What about Sedum Angelina? You can just toss it over that fence and it will just start growing! I guess perhaps it would need a little water to get started.

Yes, I was thinking if she gets a few plants now she could root more over the winter. I hear they root easily if she wants to do cuttings. do they set seed?

Sedum 'Lizard' was easy to start from seed as well.

Iceplant, maybe?

The more I think about the vinca, I dunno. Ours that's in summer sun dries up quite a bit, is between small and medium height, and grows quite dense; seems like it might carry fire too well.