Fast Growing Grass for Slope

[agwood75]

I recently purchased a home that has a semi-steep slope off the back of the house that runs down to a lake. The slope will still be mowable with a push mower, but is still steep enough for erosion to be an issue. The slope was nicely gardened at one time, but the former homeowner has not lived there full time for a couple of years and it has become extremely over grown. I do plan on keeping some of the plants that are currently there and landscaping it with mulch, but there is a portion that I would like to just replace with grass to keep it low maintenance. I am afraid that once I weed it and try to plant grass it is going to become a huge mess due to erosion. Is there a good quick growing perennial grass that I could put in this location? Could I mix a fast growing annual grass with a perennial that matches my lawn in this area? Ultimately I would like the area to match the current lawn that is below it. Is there any suggestions for erosion control until the grass takes root? I live in Indiana, just South of Indianapolis, so it will have to be a grass that thrives there. Also, the soil is slightly sandy due to its location to the lake. I believe the current lawn is a mixture of bluegrass, rye and fescue, but I am not an expert so that is just a guess.

[imafan26]

If this is a slope and you want low mainetenance, I would consider a ground cover instead of grass. To stabilize slopes you want not just a ground cover but also some shrubs and trees with deeper roots to hold the soil. Grass requires a lot of water and the usual turf grasses do not have roots that go that deep. In a big rain, there will be deep gullies and patches in the grass especially since slopes notoriously do not have rich soil and grass are hungry plants.
The lowest maintenance plants will not be grass but a mixture of native plants.

Here land is expensive and most people with slopes terrace it to extend their gardening space, decrease the steepness of the slope, and in the end that looks better than a hillside of grass.

http://www.laspilitas.com/garden/howto/slope.html
http://www.inpaws.org/wp-content/upload ... 1_2010.pdf
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrc ... 143_023575