Hi there dormantsrule. Love you screen name. : )
Have you thought about installing some kind of hard-scape for the area you want to walk on? Then plant the rest of the area in sedum and other hard, ground cover plants. It would give a lovely patchwork of color and texture.
Can you post us a photo of the area. There are many ground cover type sedum that would do well on a bank, but I don't thing they would do well under foot traffic.
Here is a list of lovely ground cover sedum:
Goldmoss Stonecrop (Sedum acre)
Sedum (Sedum album)
Fuzzy Wuzzy Sedum (Sedum dasyphyllum var. glanduliferum)
Spanish Stonecrop (Sedum hispanicum)
Mossy Stonecrop (Sedum lydium)
Chinese Stonecrop (Sedum tetractinum)
Sedum (Petrosedum rupestre subsp. rupestre 'Angelina')
Two-Row Stonecrop (Phedimus spurius 'Schorbuser Blut')
Sedum (Phedimus spurius 'Fuldaglut')
Two-Row Stonecrop (Phedimus spurius 'Green Mantle') This one has proven to be a very tough plant for my growing conditions.
Two-Row Stonecrop (Phedimus spurius 'John Creech')
Two-Row Stonecrop (Phedimus spurius 'Elizabeth') I don't have this one, but would love to get it. It should be just as tough as the other spurium sedum.
Two-Row Stonecrop (Phedimus spurius 'Ruby Mantle') I have this one and wouldn't want to be without it. Tough, gets it's best colors in full sun.
Stonecrop (Petrosedum forsterianum 'Silver Stone') Rampant re-seeder if you leave the dead flower stalks. Would do great on a bank, can get up to 10" tall.
Sedum (Phedimus kamtschaticus 'Variegatum') This one has color to die for. I've only had it for two years, so not sure how fast it will grow.
Two-Row Stonecrop (Phedimus spurius 'Voodoo') Another beautiful, dark colored spurium sedum. Would love to have this one also.
Some of these have very tiny roundish succulent leaves. You can actually break the little leaves from the plant and sprinkle them on the ground and they will grow new plants. The other larger leaved ones are very easy to start small cuttings that will root quickly and form new colonies. The spurium sedum do this very well.
