Perennials: ground cover for hill, 1 by zenpotter

zenpotter wrote:
I posted this on curb appeal, but since other people post here I though I would see what you have to say.

I need help with a problem hill. We live on a corner lot with hills on two sides. This summer I am going to tackle the hardest part of the North facing hill. In total the north hill is 126' long. The part I want to work on is in the shade of the house so we need to think total shade. We looked at having a terraced wall put in, that was way beyond our budget.

The section I will be working with this summer is about 600 sq. ft. it is 56 feet long,at about a 50 to 60º angle. At one end it is 6 feet high the other end is 9 feet high. With that steep of a hill anything I put in has to be short or it falls over. The front hill isn't as steep and I am useing sedum that is under 6". I want to put in more than one ground cover to add variety. I am in zone 4 we seem to have little snow these days so there isn't much protection from the winter winds. I am in Minneapolis so it isn't open prairie at least.

At long last the question. What do you suggest for total shade, short, sturdy and fast growing? I want more than one kind of plant to avoid one long strip of the same.

I am posting a photo of the hill with the scaffolding so you have an idea of how steep it is.