What types of plants can I plant (in Illinois) to prevent soil erosion into a river channel by my dock?

Question

I prefer to keep cost down and prefer not to use large trees. This borders my yard. My channel is being dredged right now and has a very earthy (not sand) soil. Ideally, the plant would be a ground cover, not something that needs to be trimmed every year or would block views. I have at least 150 linear feet to cover for my yard and would like to be able to cross to the other side (forest) and plant (no maintenance) something on the other side as there is no available water/electric on the far side.

Answer 1

I suggest you use crown vetch. They used it first in strip mines to keep erosion from being a problem and it worked so well that highway departments in many of the midwestern states use it along Interstates where they had to cut through hills or rocks. It's very hardy, gets about 2 ft high, and requires no fertilization or maintenance and will crowd out most weeds. The only caution is don't let it get into your lawn--if it gets close cut it back. You can plant it from seed that you can get at your better L&G centers.

Answer 2

Ground covers are nice, but can be expensive as %^&* to plant. If you want to get something traditional looking in there, Juniper is hard to beat for the price, and the only maintenance issue is getting the leaves that fall on them out of there in the Fall and Spring. Cotoneaster will work too, but with less ground hiding ability.

Consider asking a neighbor with a natural piece of shoreline to let you pull out some cat-tails or other native plants that grow right on the waters edge for a more natural looking finish.

Answer 3

I would go with a short stem prairie mix with a mezic wet/mezic dry combo. the wet goes near the water the dry goes higher up. Prairie plants have a very deep root system that will help hold the soil together.

It takes only around 5 years for the roots to get deep enough and then you have up to 8 fold increase in water holding capacity.

Answer 4

flowers with great root platforms are suited as they shelter greater effective quantities of soil. Examples contain yet are actually not constrained to: grass, ivies, even timber... the olive tree has a root gadget as great simply by fact the above-floor enhance !

Answer 5

periwinkle is great. You can also use creeping juniper, moss phlox, sedum, spurge, creeping wintergreen. do some searching on the web for seed catalogs and plant nurseries.

http://www.seedman.com/gcover.htm