Planting Wildflowers on a Steep Bank or Slope

Plant Wildflowers on a Steep Bank or Slope - No Need to Mow!

Looking for an affordable, low-maintenance solution for your sloped backyard? Wildflowers are a great idea for steep or sloped areas of your landscape - especially if the slope makes mowing difficult or impossible! Every year, we get questions from all over the country on this subject. "Can we plant on a slope?" "Will our seed wash away?" "What can we do to prevent erosion?" Below, we'll show step-by-step tips for planting wildflowers on a slope. Plus, see two successful wildflower plantings on sloped lawns!

Why Wildflowers?

Annual Wildflowers are a great option for sloped garden beds or meadows because most annual varieties sprout quickly. This means their roots grow quickly, which makes them less susceptible to being washed away in a rainstorm. 

Perennial Wildflowers are a great option for sloped areas because they grow deep, resilient root systems and grow back year after year. Once they're established, they can help prevent erosion and provide years of low-maintenance flower blooms.

Plus, there's no need to regularly mow your steep, sloped area! You can mow once per year for maintenance, or you can skip mowing altogether to allow your meadow to take on a natural look.

All of our wildflower seed mixes include a combination of annuals for first season blooms, and perennials for blooms that start blooming in their second seasona and return each year. You can also choose to plant individual annual or individual perennial varieties of wildflowers.

Planting A Slope: Seeding

After Mike prepped the soil, he spread the seed by hand and used a roller to compact the seed into the soil. This is a key step, especially for this sloped area. If you're planting a smaller area, you can simply walk on the seed after planting to compress it. This compression helps prevent seed from washing away in the rain, and good seed-to-soil contact also improves germination rate.

For in-depth instructions on preparing for, planting, and maintaining wildflower meadows, please view our planting guides!

Results In The First Year

As you can see by the photos below, the results were impressive throughout the season, starting at the end of July and lasting through September. Erin and her daughter Lily enjoyed the colorful blooms and had plenty to cut for bouquets.

Update - Two Years Later

Two years later, Erin's family has grown by one (a daughter, Abby), and the wildflower meadow on the slope is still as colorful as ever! Erin says they add a little more seed each year to fill in the bare spots but that the area is still extremely low maintenance. It blooms from May all the way into the fall and brings their family joy each season. Erin snapped these photos over the summer of 2017.

Framing A Log Cabin With Wildflowers

Our customer, Dot and Pete Ramsdell, live in a famously beautiful spot near Cavendish Village, Vermont. There they have a charming log home with rolling lawns and mountain scenery, but there was one problem. The house sits on a hill, and just in front, the ground slopes toward a large lawn at an angle of 45 degrees. The slope made the view from the house beautiful, but as with all steep slopes, it made mowing difficult. They wanted to plant flowers, but did not want to struggle with weeding and mowing around flower beds on the large, sloping space. They decided to try wildflowers!

We couldn’t agree more!