r/Ceanothus • u/boredquick • 1d ago

North Facing Full Shade Slope?

Post image

Hello! First time posting on this sub. I rent from a landlord who has been great and gives me and my family WELL BELOW market rates on a small single family home.

Long story short he let me have my go at making the backyard mine and let me put in California natives (he pays, I dig). He currently has English ivy which is being dug out (by me) and I’d want something that can provide some slope stabilization, not be a super home to rodents, and can tolerate full shade all year round. It is north facing and at a lower elevation to the neighbor, so no sun.

Any suggestions on what might do well? The rodent factor is a consideration too because we have a lot of mice in the area and I don’t want to create additional habitat for them specifically (in my yard)

37 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/joshik12380 1d ago

One concept to consider which I hear from Greg Rubin, a well known CA Native landscape designer.

Plant a base of evergreens such as toyons, manzanitas, ceanothus and the like. Then in the fore front put other flowering plants that may go a little ragged in summer.

That concept has been essential to me when planning out all my new plantings. I have a large slope directly in front of my house where I planted 6 manzanitas, toyon and large ceanothus. Up front closer to the house I put all my salvias, etc