We have a pretty steep area on part of our dam and rather than mow it, we are letting the grass grow for now--it is just too steep to mow. What type of ground cover, plants and/or flowers can be grown on a steep dam that will both look nice and have a low profile?

MarkECIN, big flat rocks will look nice and give it a different appearence.

Good luck!!

Short native grasses with or without wildflowers. This takes time to establish but is really nice in the end

You need some way to control woody plants - mowing, herbicides, or burning. I prefer native prarie plants and burning, but you need the right situation to burn (almost lost one last year, so I am a little fire shy). Alternatively you can go with endophyte-free fescue, but it is not much good for wildlife.

like lassig's idea
sorta what we did

I'm assuming you mean the back of the dam, but you might plant native blue flag iris on the front and top (my back of the dam suggestion is at the bottom of the post). It will grow in the water to about 6 inches deep and will also grow well out of the water too. It will choke out other weeds and help to protect the dam at the same time. Looks like cattails without the invasiveness, and has pretty blue and/or purple flowers in the spring.

We have it, along with native sweetflag and some yellow flag iris on our dam. It's a nice look as it sort of "softens up" the unnatural look of a flat faced dam, and it reduces maintenance for us.


On the back of the dam, you might want to consider buffalo grass. Native to the plains states, it is a sod forming grass that spreads by stolons (above ground stems). It likes heavier clay soils (typical soil type for most dams) and is highly drought tolerant as well. It only grows to about 8 inches tall (some selections only grow to 4 inches tall), so really no mowing needed, but I would give it an annual brush hogging to prevent shrubs and/or trees from trying to make a home there. It's a great grass for wildlife as well, and usually plays well with wildflowers mixed in if you would like. It has a sort of silvery appearance, which I really like also.


More info on buffalo grass here: http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=boda2