Grow Native! Master Class: Native Perennials for Planting on Slopes

Spend an hour getting to know some of the best go-to plants for building ecologically sound landscapes with Shannon Currey, a horticultural educator with Izel Native Plants. With Native Plant Solutions, we take a deep dive into a handful of specific native plants, focusing on a landscape situation or plant adaptation that makes them particularly helpful. This session addresses the challenge of what to plant on slopes. Most of us garden on sites that aren’t flat. We deal with hills, ditches, banks, ridges, and all the ups and downs that come with them. It’s physically more difficult to work on them, and they’re particularly vulnerable to erosion when rainfall going downhill gathers speed and volume. What plants work best on slopes? In this session, we’ll discuss objectives for managing slopes and connect them to plant attributes that fulfill those objectives. The plants you choose are part of a larger community on which native fauna and flora rely. Learn how to approach slopes as an opportunity to improve function and add ecological benefits without sacrificing aesthetics.

Learning Objectives:

1. Be able to describe the importance that plantings play in helping manage stormwater and reducing erosion on slopes.
2. Be able to discuss the importance of minimizing disturbance when planting on slopes.
3. Know some of the key attributes that make plants well adapted to plantings on slopes.
4. Be able to list and briefly describe five regionally native plants that are well suited to and will thrive on slopes.

This live master class, to be held via Zoom, will include a presentation and question-and-answer session. A recording will be available only to those who have registered. Please register at the link below.

Cost: Free to all MPF dues-paying members and Grow Native! professional members, or $15 for non-members. Master class fees support our Grow Native! programming. Visit our MPF membership page to become a member and attend all master classes for free!

For landscape architects that participate in the Landscape Architecture Continuing Education System, this master class meets the LA CES health, safety and welfare definition and counts for 1 PDH. Register at the link below by May 20 and see details about earning LA CES here.

Shannon Currey is a horticultural educator with Izel Native Plants. She began her work life as a social scientist but changed careers to study horticultural science and landscape design at North Carolina State University. She’s worked in the nursery trade since 2006, developing expertise in grasses and sedges and expanding her knowledge of native forbs. Shannon has shared her knowledge in nationally published articles and traveled the country speaking to professional organizations, community groups, and at public gardens. She currently serves on the North Carolina Plant Conservation Program Scientific Committee, holds advisory roles with several organizations, and has served on the boards of the Perennial Plant Association and the Perennial Plant Foundation. Shannon lives in Durham, North Carolina and loves exploring the native flora everywhere she goes.

Photo of a slope planting by Shannon Currey