what to plant

Question

I have a small hill in my yard where our property is lower than the property next to us. It gets full sun most of the day. It was grass (sort of) but the water just runs off and does not soak in so we covered the grass with newspaper topped with mulch to kill the grass, then placed some bricks on top to hold it all in place as much as possible. I need something drought tolerant, and am going to plant thyme as a ground cover. My question is, what small plants can I put in the ground cover here and there to add some interest?
I live in zone 8B, Poulsbo, WA.
I am attaching a picture. The ground cover will extend down into where our front yard (grass) used to be, but only the part in the back by the fence and the neighbor’s driveway is the hilly area.
thank you for any suggestions you have.

Answer 1

Have you considered a rain garden or are you in the part of Wa that is bone dry in the summer? Another option is to plant a vine and train it to cover the ground. There are 2 native Wa vines, western white clematis and orange honeysuckle, Lonicera ciliosa. Another possibility is climbing (running, in your case) hydrangea. You can use landscape-fabric “U” style pins to direct stems and keep them from trying to climb. You can do this with climbing roses as well. If you want a traditional groundcover, search for groundcovers for slopes. Cotoneaster is a rapid spreader and cultivars provide orange-red fall color and good-looking berries in winter.