I live in zone 4 and have a county gravel road up the hill from my yard. I have attached a photo...Currently it is wild brome grass.

I am looking for a plant that is CHEAP possibly seed to grow on this slope. It has to be cheap because the county has the right-of-way and can dig it up any time they want and I don't want to cry for loss of expensive plants. It has to be low plant so we can see the traffic (tractors) coming down the road when we are ready to turn onto the road. It needs to be drought tolerant because I don't have enough hose to reach out there and I'm not going to. (I know I will have to to get it established)

So here is my criteria:

Short - less than 12 inches tall
drought tolerant
grows on a slope
cheap - can be started from seed?
grows in zone 4

I'm not asking for much, am I? I have thought of wild flowers, creeping phlox, but want to look at other things too. Anyone have any ideas for me?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: daciab,

Short Shasta daisies, I know they have them because I have grown some from seeds. How about Stella D'ioro daylillies? I know I will be seperating some later this summer or fall and would be silling to send you some fans from them. Maybe someone else would volunteer to send you some also.

Owie, That would be awesome! Would they fill in this large of an area? I am guessing on the 6X100 feet area, but it has to be close to that.

I will look at the daisy seeds tonight.

Here is another photo that may show the area better.

Any other ideas?

wisc. state herbarium

daciab, the above link has a massive, massive amount of plants in their databanks, lots of info...may be able to get some ideas from there that would work for you?

Thanks rosepetals - I was able to find a few plants but don't know if they can be grown from seed . I will have to do more research.

Some I saw are:
several stonecrops
massachusetts bearberry
buffalo poppy
vancouver gold woadwaxen

There are several grasses but that won't look too good in the country it will look like it does now.

Does anyone have any experience with any of the above listed plants? Any other ideas for me?

What about a creeping phlox? You could get some really pretty colors there. And it expands very well.

Portulaca, ajuga, creeping phlox, candytuft, wave petunias, pinks, basket of gold comes to my mind. Creeping phlox will soon be over with. Oh, add forget-me-nots(both pink and blue colors) All these are prennials with the exception of petunias.

Sorry to post my question and then disappear!

Thanks for the ideas. I will look at them all and decide what will be the easiest and cheapest. This is such an out-of-the-way area. But it would be safer to get rid of the tall grass that is there.

Is candytuft really perennial???

Daciab: how about some sedum? I haven't done it, but all you have to do is stick a stem in the dirt and it will grow. There's all kinds of em. Small ground cover ones and larger plants that flower. Drought tolerant.
They are usually the first plant up in the spring for me here.

http://www.sedumphotos.net/main.php

http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/page80.html

http://www.lazyssfarm.com/Plants/Perennials/S_files/Sed...d%20Sempervivums.htm

cosmos
ditch lilies
black eyed susans...

Cosmos would work nicely... and also the lilies. Have you considered wildflowers? I've seen large containers of seeds with wildflowers in stores. Here is a resource I just looked up. Look under "Photos" and I see varieties such as "Mexican Hat" among others would be good choices.Oooh.. the African Daisy is beautiful.

Wildflowers in Bloom

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