Our home, while beautiful and still fairly new, had been somewhat neglected in terms of taming the verdant growth that was trying to reclaim it. The Trailing Pacific Blackberry (see the ‘Shrubs and Plants’ tab here) in particular has spread unchecked around the house, and is proving difficult to get under control.

The home sits on top of a small bluff anywhere from 15-25 feet above the lake surface (depending on the time of the year). This bluff is basically a crumbling dirt slope. Over the years, trees have tried to grow on it, and since they weren’t managed, eventually tumbled over towards the lake, pulling part of the slope down with it, slowly degrading it further and contributing to a neglected appearance due to the dead, lichen-covered branches. Huckleberries and rhododendrons have tried to cover it, but without regular pruning, both are covered with dead growth as well. The rhododendrons do not seem to like the abundant sunlight on this south-facing slope either – they are spindly with yellowed leaves. They look much healthier further back on the property under the shade of the towering evergreens.

Here’s a photo of the slope in September 2023:

I’ve been working on this area. It’s a south-facing slope and is quite visible from the lake, so cleaning it up is desirable for us. Here’s the way it looks now:

The first photo was taken from a borrowed drone, and the second standing on the barge attached to the boathouse. The pictures don’t look too much different, but the second has some of the undergrowth and dead branches cleaned up, and if you look carefully you can see a splash of fuchsia from an azalea I planted. I’ve also planted some St John’s Wort, some phlox, and creeping thyme. With time, I hope to see this hillside covered in stunning color, and stabilized by the plant growth.

Along the top, we have a naturally occurring irregular hedge of huckleberries, myrtle, and rhododendron. I’ve carved a path between this and our deck:

In the past week, I’ve cleared out the growth for 3-4 feet on either side of this path. We’re planning on planting a double row of hydrangeas along the top (smaller varieties in front, with a back row eight feet tall). You can see one of the smaller ones at the front left. With our acidic soils, some hydrangea types will have blue flowers, which I think are most stunning. However, those types of hydrangeas don’t get very tall and are not great for a hedge. Hence the double row – in the back I’m planting a row of these ‘Quickfire Fab’ hydrangeas, which can get up to 8 feet tall. I’ve ordered these from Amazon but not received them yet. Their blooms start off as white and change to a pinkish color. What I love about hydrangeas is that they flower the whole spring and summer if properly pruned, and the blooms are absolutely stunning.

On the right side, we had one lone blueberry plant which has given us a handful of blueberries for the past couple of years. Berries do well in acidic soils, so we’re going with what works – I’ve just planted 8 more small blueberry plants along the right side of the path, four ‘Emerald‘ and four ‘Biloxi‘. The seedlings arrived quickly, and were healthy. Here’s a picture of them planted:

You can just barely see the small seedling surrounded by mulch in the lower right. They’re spaced every 5 feet from there. Over the years, these should give us gallons of fruit for up to month a year. I purposely picked two different varieties for the fruiting season would extend longer.

I’ll update this as things change on the front slope!