Ask-a-Dave's-Gardener: Need the ultimate ground cover for this hill!, 1 by sockofrog

sockofrog wrote:
Hello,
I live in north Mississippi with a steep hill I desperately need to get looking better. It is on the north side of my house, so it stays relatively shady. Currently the hillside has a mix of stuff going on....clumps of liriope, vinca minor, daylilies, and weeds. It looks horrible.
What I\'m looking for is the ultimate solution for this hill. I need something that doesn\'t have to be mowed or trimmed back, as the hill is very steep and dangerous to climb on. I need something that will suppress the crap out of the weeds. And preferably I\'d like something that doesn\'t get too invasive, to where it invades the yard below and becomes a nightmare for me down the road.

The two choices I have been tossing back and forth are either regular Mondo Grass....or Asiatic Jasmine.

I currently have variegated asiatic jasmine on another hill on the back side of the house. It seems to suppress weeds pretty well, though occasionally some will pop through. It does get a little brown in the winter. I just don\'t like how \"viney\" it is. But I can\'t help but wonder if the asiatic jasmine would be easier to keep control of than Mondo Grass.

I do think the Mondo Grass would look cool on the hill though if the blades arched down and looked like a flowing sea of green.

It needs to be able to handle drought conditions too....even though we get tons of rain in the spring, we almost always go into a lengthy dry spell starting mid-summer.

Please let me know what you think about the two options I came up with, and if I should be thinking about anything totally different.