Hello,
We have a drainage ditch with a culvert by the roadside in our front yard. This is the first year we've been in our house, but last summer we discovered that the ditch is deep enough that it's nearly impossible to mow. There's no way to get into it with a tractor without tipping the darn thing over, and even by hand it's a really strenuous chore. Not to mention the ditch is completely filled with noxious weeds like thistle (which crowd out the few daisies that tried to show their heads).
What can we do with this ditch? I'm not looking forward to another weedy summer. We also need a solution that's going to be relatively inexpensive. Is there a fast-growing ground cover I could plant to keep the weeds crowded out? Low growing might be better since last year the township came through and mowed the ditch down. (So whatever I plant would either have to look "already mowed" or would have to recover from an aggressive mowing easily. They mowed down my lilies last year. *sigh*)
I also can't till the area due to utility lines. Every single one of our utility lines runs through that ditch from gas to phone to cable. Can I kill all the weeds and add a shallow layer of topsoil, or will that adversely affect the topsoil?
Please help...
I didn't find the right solution from the Internet.
References
davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/823211/
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