Planting up a short bank

[jjejed]

Hi! We are renovating our back garden and have a small bank going from the patio up to the field which is a higher level.

DH wants to grass the bank, but I think this will be very boring and will also be quite tricky for me to strim regularly particularly with toddlers in tow.

However, I do appreciate it is going to be a LOT of work and plants to plant up the bank from scratch. I can borrow some plants from the front garden/beg, steal, borrow etc but I'm wondering if there is a ground cover that might be a bit more colourful than grass? Maybe creeping thyme? Aubretia?

We are going to be looking at this bank from the kitchen/lounge area all day every day, so some colour would be really lovely. I'd also love to have spring bulbs in there too which would be nice and easy.

Any colourful ground cover that is fairly quick to grow and ideally I can just plant as seed direct to the bank?

Lamium are plants that creep along and come in a variety of shades, also some with variegated leaves. Cerastium, known as snow in summer is another good spreader, with silvery leaves. Creeping Phlox would also suit.
Most of these will be found in the rockery/ alpine section, but they are hardy.

A friend has a bank planted with cowslips, which looks lovely when they're out. She has a couple of the spreading ceanothus too.

Vinca spreads really quickly too.

Yy to cowslips or primroses. If you’re doing these and have a limited number of plants, plant along the top of the bank as they spread more quickly and easily downhill.

If you wanted to be a little fancy, take a look at that passage in midsummer night’s dream which begins “I know a bank where the wild thyme grows...” and use those plants for a Shakespearean border! Think that includes eglantine which is another name for wild roses.

I've got a big sloping border and there are already euonymous, sedum, ivy and perennial geraniums. I've recently dug out a lot of shrubs which were overgrown and things I just didn't like. Yesterday I planted vinca and I have two varieties and lamium and some creeping phlox on order. Ajuga is also good for ground cover. I planted two in a border and they've grown really well and spread to cover a lot of soil, which was what I wanted.

Two varieties of lamium that should say.

Comfrey is really good on a bank and spreads well.