Question
Hi Russel,
I have read your answers to the other questions and I am quite impressed. I
would love to hear your advice for me as my wife and I are planning out what
to do with our backyard. The first big item on the list is the bank. It is 33 ft x
60 ft and I have just cleared it of iceplant and weeds. My plan is to water it
now, let whatever weeds grow up, apply round up to kill them and then start
planting new stuff. We would like to have the entire bank be drought tolerant,
etc. We would also like some trees at the base to provide some privacy
(maybe 15-20 ft tall max). So far I have been looking for a good groundcover
to put in that will spread quickly. I would also like to put in some succulents
in between the groundcover at some spots on the bank. Do you have any
recommendations for this basic plan as a whole as well as recommendations
for what trees and groundcover to plant? We live in San Marcos (North San
Diego County).

Thank you so very much!!!!

Answer
Hey, Todd.

Rather than watering the weeds to get them to grow, and thereby wasting water in our desert environment, apply a pre-emergent weed killer. Then put down some weed cloth to prevent things from growing up, and to prevent things from growing down (i.e, the roots of anything that lands on the weed cloth).

If you really want to go the inexpensive route (and depending on whether the hillside is in the front yard or the back yard), you can put down a layer of newspaper. It will become very hot under the newspaper, thereby killing anything underneath, and the newspaper, being processed wood, will biodegrade. If the hillside is out front, you could put a shallow layer of soil or mulch on top of the newspaper. I've usually done newspaper on flat land, although I have been successful on slight slopes here in California. I wouldn't do it if the slope is more than 10% or so.

Most pre-emergent weed killers won't harm whatever plants you put in the ground, but read the manufacturer's directions at the store before you buy. Roundup requires you to wait a while before planting other stuff in the soil.

Since you're up in San Marcos, there are some great succulent and xeriscape nurseries along the 78 corridor, stretching all the way from Escondido to Encinitas. Seven miles north of Escondido, at the Deer Springs exit, there are two great nurseries, one on each side of the highway. The best one is on the right side going north.

As far as what to buy, I think that you should consider terracing the hillside first. That will make working on the hillside much easier. I actually leave the terraces because I like to walk my hillsides and enjoy the plants that I put in.

The cool thing about living in San Diego is that with our Mediterranean climate, anything will grow here as long as we meet its water needs. With drought-tolerant plants, that's not hard to do.

Read through this document: http://www.russel-ray.com/articles/0025-vegetation.pdf and see if anything interests you. All the plants in the pictures, except one, are/were on properties of mine in San Diego.

Are you putting in a landscape irrigation system? If you're not, I would suggest it for those extremely hot, dry Santa Ana days when you might want to water the hillside a little at night to help prevent extreme desiccation that the hot, dry winds can cause.

One other thing that I did several years ago was to dig out level areas on the hillside just big enough to hold some large clay pots. I put dwarf bougainvillea in the pots (you can seem some dwarf bougainvilleas in the file). Since the dwarfs are so colorful but small, I wanted to raise them above everything else so that their color was visible.

Hope that helps some. Feel free to come back or email me directly at [email protected]. Visit my web site (www.russel-ray.com), as well as my other web site at www.mywiseoldgrandmother.com for some other articles and discussion about landscaping that might interest you. I've also got some informative blogs over at Active Rain (http://activerain.com/blogs/russel). I might even be able to stop by next time I'm up in that area if you'd like.