Growing chamomile(roman) as ground cover on steep slope

by Nathan
(York, PA)

Hi,

I am in Zone 6A, and would like to use chamomile as a groundcover for a large hillside in my backyard. The hill is very steep, thus making mowing difficult. Thus I was looking for something low growing. The area is recieves sun all day. All my reading say it's an "evergreen perennial". Could you comment on wether this would be a successful venture? And if so, any hints on achieving the goal?

Doug says this would be a waste of time. Hmm, "evergreen perennial" well kind of but don't bet the farm on it being a good ground cover in this situation.

Here's the deal with ground covers. Grass invades them. And low ground covers don't fight off grass because it's taller than they are. Grass grows right up through it and slowly kills it. So by the time you get your chamomile established, you'll spend far more time out there removing the grass than you do mowing now.

I recognize that mowing a steep hillside isn't a great chore and downright dangerous depending on the slope.

This is where plants such as evergreens, ornamental grasses, spiked leaf plants such as daylily all look and act a ton better than something normally called a ground cover. And even they will require specific care to keep the weeds from eating them alive. Shrubs with landscape fabric and mulch reduce the maintenance. But no plant will be maintenance free and ground covers particularly in this situation will drive you nuts.

I hate to say it but unless you're really prepared to do a lot of work on that slope in the weeding-department, installing traditional ground covers such as chamomile are pretty much a practical waste of time.

The arm-chair authors will tell you differently of course so let me suggest you take a small corner of your slope and run an experiment and see how much time and effort it's going to take to kill the grass, plant and establish the chamomile and then maintain it grass and weed free.

Good luck