How Can You Safeguard Your Landscape from Soil Erosion?
Soil is important to the health and growth of your grass, trees, flowers, and shrubs. It holds vital water and nutrients around the roots. You want to avoid soil erosion at all costs. But how? Read on to find out how these landscaping experts avoid soil erosion.
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The Three Best Ways To Prevent Soil Erosion In Your Yard
1. Stabilize Your Soil By Mulching
Mulching helps your soil to conserve moisture while curbing the erosion losses. You can use rocks, gravel, leaves, wood chips, or shredded bark as mulch. Mulch any bare soil, especially space between your plants. Doing so will not only feed your soil but also minimize evaporation.
2. Know Where To Water
Plant the same plants together. For example, plant cacti together away from water-loving plants like Lily of the Valley and Rose Mallow. Planting them together will allow you to provide the right amount of water to the same group of flowers or shrubs. Doing so will help you prevent erosion due to overwatering while conserving water.
3. Control Water Flow With Plant Catchments
If you want to control water erosion, the best thing to do is catch it. Create low points in your garden. You can stone or even dig small canals to direct water towards these low points. Doing so will help you control the flow of water while preventing polluting canals.
Create An Efficient Drainage System
One of the best ways to prevent soil erosion is to focus on creating efficient drainage. You can create diversions to channel water down a specific, man-made path. You can use gutters or pipes, but simply digging ditches into the soil to create these paths is incredibly effective.
Mulching: Protecting Your Soil from Erosion
Soil erosion in most cases can be slowed if not stopped entirely, but you need to understand where and how it occurs. In its most basic terms, erosion is caused when rock, soil, or stone is worn down over time by the elements, becoming loose. Other factors like lack of natural binding materials, poor drainage, and just the general makeup of the landscape can further accelerate erosion.
Examine the Areas for Drainage
Water that flows through a property should do so slowly, allowing the soil to absorb it properly. Fast-moving water is one the biggest factors when it comes to erosion, but there are several ways to treat it. To protect your soil, you can implement the use of a rain garden. Plant some water-friendly plants in the locality that will soak up all of that extra water.
The plants you place in a garden are also crucial when it comes to preventing soil erosion. When water rushes across an area, it is your plants that are holding the soil firmly together. Flowers such as sages and daylilies are great, colorful options for binding your soil together thus slowing erosion. It’s also recommended to lay around three inches of mulch to protect the soil and boost overall surface area.
Prevent Soil Erosion With These Steps
- Planting vegetation along the banks of rivers and other bodies of water help stabilize the soil.
- Installing drainage systems to reduce the amount of water that runs off the land surface.
- Building terraces or retaining walls to keep the soil in place.
- Creating buffer zones around agricultural land to protect it from wind and rain damage.
- Applying mulch or compost to help retain moisture and nutrients in the soil.
- Using no-till farming techniques to reduce disturbance of the soil surface.
Henry Davis
Henry Davis, Owner of Adept Golf.
Plant Trees Where The Soil Compaction Is Weak
The only way to stop soil erosion naturally is to plant trees in areas where you think soil compaction is the weakest. The roots of the trees, as well as other plants, will make the soil firmer to solve solid erosion. This, however, will take time and effort on your part. Another smart way to do this is to apply blocks or concrete to hold the soil. You can also call a landscaper to do this for you.
This is a crowdsourced article. Contributors are not necessarily affiliated with this website and their statements do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this website, other people, businesses, or other contributors.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does landscaping reduce soil erosion?
Yes, landscaping to prevent soil erosion is both effective and essential, especially on properties with slopes, heavy rain, or poor drainage. Proper landscape design minimizes runoff, stabilizes soil, and protects structures by redirecting water flow.
Certain landscaping methods are particularly effective for erosion control:
- Retaining walls support unstable ground and hold back shifting soil
- Deep-rooted grass, flowers, and garden plants anchor the earth and reduce erosion
- Mulched areas slow water flow and protect soil from splashing
- Permeable surfaces like gravel or stone allow water to soak into the ground instead of washing soil away
Strategically placed vegetation and proper grading prevent soil erosion by absorbing excess rain and directing it away from vulnerable zones. Unlike concrete or hard surfaces, living landscaping helps retain nutrients in soils, stops erosion, and supports healthy root systems.
What is the best landscape plant to stop erosion?
The best plant to stop soil erosion in the Chicago area should be well-adapted to the region’s climate, clay-heavy soil, and seasonal rain. Native plants are especially effective here—they develop deep root systems, tolerate Midwest weather patterns, and help stabilize the ground year-round.
Effective landscaping to prevent soil erosion in Chicago includes:
Little bluestem and switchgrass – These native grasses are drought-tolerant, thrive in local soils, and create dense root networks that hold soil in place
- Creeping juniper – An evergreen ground cover ideal for slopes and retaining walls, offering year-round protection
- Wild geranium and black-eyed Susan – Low-growing perennials that work well in garden borders or under trees
- Red osier dogwood – A hardy shrub that controls erosion near rain garden edges or along creeks and wet areas
These species require minimal lawn care.
What is a good ground cover for erosion?
A good ground cover for erosion in the Chicago area is creeping juniper, thanks to its dense, spreading growth and year-round coverage. It holds soil on slopes and withstands harsh winters. Other strong options include wild ginger and prairie dropseed, both native plants with deep roots that stabilize the ground and reduce runoff. These ground covers are low-maintenance and excellent for landscaping to prevent soil erosion naturally.
Following these nine essential elements for landscape design will create a solid foundation
