Gardening Help

[ArcticChicken]

My aunt owns an apartment building, and we're trying to make it look nice. Can't afford to hire someone to take care of the lawn, tried to work out an agreement with some of the tenants, but they keep flaking out.

Anyway, there are two areas of the lawn that are MASSIVE pains in the butt to keep maintained, a steep hill area and a shady area under a tree.

I would like to turn them both into garden areas, the big problem being that I am not much of a gardener, the other problem being that I won't be able to get over there terribly often to maintain them (my aunt isn't doing well, physically, though maybe when she gets her knees replaced she could do some of the work).

The hillside faces east and gets sun pretty much all day. The tree area also faces east, but in the summer the ground underneath is in shade all day. The tree is my biggest priority, because there are a bunch of vines that like to grow up into the tree. I've spent an inordinate amount of time up that tree trying to get it all out, and some of it was roses. Ow.

Anyway, any advice anyone cares to give me would be deeply appreciated.

P.S. I'm in Philadelphia, for climate info.

[Mishi]

I like to make hugelkultur-style beds, because they're very low maintenance and they're cheap. I live in the sub-tropics and I only need to water 1-2 times a week during the dry season.

I chuck my wooden debris through a shredder/chipper because that makes it a little easier to deal with, put a layer of horse manure + kitchen/garden scraps on top, some top soil to plant into and then a layer of mulch. Water well and let it cool down, then plant right into it. With the garden bed on the slope, find something that's hardy and has a large root system to anchor everything. Cosmos is pretty good, oregano likes to spread a bit (and has pretty flowers) and nasturtiums are easy.

[AccountingDrone]

Hm, I would almost go for a ground cover plant. I remember my grandparents summer house had pachysandra under the trees and some short evergreen juniper that was only about 8 inches to a foot tall with rocks on an open hillside area. I remember some sort of mulch around the juniper but the pachysandra pretty much solidly covered the shady spots, and I think there was some myrtle around as well.

[taxguykarl]

I agree with AccountingDrone about some kind of groundcover for both areas. For the shady area, consider hostas. They look nice and are wonderfully low maintenance (perennials)...and in about another month or so, garden supply houses will be practically giving them away. I can't say I have much experience with other groundcovers.

[auntiem]

For sure hostas (get them from a local nursery to make sure they are hardy for your area) for under the tree or maybe ferns - around here, ferns grow literally like weeds (popping up where you didn't plant them) but I think it will get cold enough there that that won't happen.
The hill - what about a mini blueberry farm? You'll have to probably get bird netting.

[pitmonkey]

I would look into a native plant group. They will be able to guide you to low maintenance and hardy plants in your area.

[Andara Bledin]

I've got a stretch along the side of my house that has a high clay content (it's the ground in that area) and is too thin a strip of land to be used as anything other than access. I plan to put in some large stepping stones and fill in the rest with some sort of native ground cover that I won't have to maintain like I would grass.

^-.-^

[Der Cute]

I agree with hostas. They're pretty much idiot and bug proof. Easy to grow, they're lush green, and they just sit. Low maint.
Hm.
First, get a pair of pruners (STAY AWAY FROM BOND THEY KEEP DYING ON ME) and cut the vines. What I did was snip at my hand level and start yanking the damn things from above me. Roses, well..gloves. Ivy..ack. I pulled as much as possible, and kept trimming to the ground. Ivy has little golf ball sized root things. I dug it up from the ground. Weird.
Once the vines are trimmed, you can plant stuff.
I might go with a brick border like this: http://bit.ly/Q4urwn around the part of the area you want plants in. (Philly, brick houses...)
Perennials are easy to have and grow, and keep coming back so you don't have to replant them (grr). If the tree area is mostly shade, try these: http://bit.ly/NJWP7n they seem to be ground cover. My favorite is the last one, but I like purple. Or this: http://bit.ly/On4CHr
I dunno what the ground is like under the tree and in your area you want to plant, so take some pics of the area, cut open a hole for the soil you can look at, and take that to a greenhouse/garden store.
But what I did with the shit soil around here was weed the fuck out of it, mix some stuff (as AccountingHeart did, and kind of evened it out. Then I covered allllll the dirt with paper bags. Dual layered, instead of the plastic stuff. Hey, paper gradually dies, right? Then I planted.
That was a mistake - I had to cut through the paper bags!

But I like hostas, and the purple ones I'm just a purple freak.