Looking for cheap way to mass plant an east facing slope z=5

This isn't the best picture but it is taken from the south-end of my lot looking across the back of my home. The slope is quite steep when you consider the mowing aspect; hanging the mower over from the top and trying to push it up from the bottom doesn't quite reach in the middle and it gets harder to do each passing year. Originally I had wanted to mass plant the whole side of the hill with 'lily of the valley', but then I got laid-off and have ended up back in school instead of back to work. So anyway now I have the time, but not the finances. If anyone has any suggestions I would be most appreciative; and if anyone has areas that have become overrun with flowing shade plants I would be happy to do the work of relieving your excess. This will be my seventh summer here and I have not accomplished even a portion of what I had planned when I moved here. My 2011 resolution is to get out there as soon as the snow melts and start digging:)

Oops, I should also say that the part of that slope that is my first target, is the steeper part on the right back side of the photo...where the weeds are marginally worse than the rest of the yard on that particular day last spring.( this image is to the right of the slope)

(this image is just a little left (west) of the slope)

Why don't you just till it up and plant a mixture of wild flowers and ornamental grasses of some kind. You could even dig some ferns from the woods. Having a natural landscape would be much easier to maintain. You're going to get weeds in with whatever you plant. Ajuga will grow pretty thick if you can get it started. I don't have any now or I'd give you some. It will grow in the sun or shade. Since it's shady I'd go with wild ferns. Get in the woods and dig up as many as you can and plant them and let them spread. They won't get real tall and will look nice there on the hill.

Good luck

Brenda

How about buying some carpet roses, just buy a couple and take cuttings this summer, start as many as you want, for free!! then you can plant your cuttings after babying them for a year and there you go!! a mass planting for cheap! You can do that with a ton of plants. I just like roses.

I think the wildflower mix is a great idea but I found that it is hard to maintain. May you could carve out areas to plant with a particular wildflower, and keep adding areas each year. I have ordered seeds for wildflowers from Everwilde seeds, and they send a lot of seeds. Their site takes a little studying, because they don't separate the annuals and perennials. And, of course, some of the perennials need cold treatment to get them to germinate. (That can easily be done in your refrigerator.) Natives are pretty easy to maintain once established. I see they have Stylophorum diphyllum (Celandine Poppy) which I have grown for years. It likes shade and flowers very early in the Spring when I am desparate for color.

If the area isn't too large you could kill all the vegetation then put down a few layers of a good landscape fabric and add rocks/stones. Then interplant pockets of low maintenance spreading ground covers like hen and chicks or ajuga.You could also put in some spring flowering bulbs like daffodils. Deer won't eat them because they're poisonous. It would be a lot of work at first but much easier to maintain in the long run. No matter what you wind up planting it's going to require some work to maintain. Even fast spreaders need a couple years or more to get thick enough to choke out weeds.

I think you could use a fast growing ground cover that would
suffocate any weed growth, remain lowish and non invasive.

Some good ones for the shade would be Myrtle/Vinca's

I put down nurse crops, mustard or rye overplanting and
then stuff in the ground cover plants. the nurse crops will
die, and then you have the strong ground covers coming.

If you don't mind Round Up, the way to recover a area
is to spray it, and then another week or so later, spray
it again when new growth is appearing. Then wait 3 days
and put in your ground covers.

You can intersperse taller landscaping plants when you
have the area under control, or you can just go with
a no maintenence gound cover.
You could put in Hosta afterwards or lilys or larger
shrubs woodland types that love Michigan soils and
some cooler breezy looking shade. I recommend
some Rhodo's, some azaleas, like that.

I agree with Loon, to put down some landscape
fabric, I prefer the type that will degrade, and not
the plastic. You will kill yourself with that stuff, it
won't go away and it eventually comes up to
terrorize you. don't use the landscape staples
either. They are very dangerous, and wait to kill
you. : )

The hens and chicks are great! You can dig them
up and plant them in someone elses property
if they are too much. I put them in along sides
of the roads around here to suppress weedy
growth. Daffodils are super dooper.

Hope this helps,
Have a happy quiet winter
Sheri

Thanks for all the suggestions, I think I can use all of them to some extent. Spring will be very busy, well once the snow goes away.