Ground cover shrubs can be an excellent choice for establishing a vegetative cover on steep banks / hillsides where you don’t want to mow any longer, and want something with good root mass to hold the soil in place and still look good!   One of the best choices for a shrubby ground cover is Dwarf Bush Honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera)

One of the reasons Dwarf Bush Honeysuckle is good at holding slopes in place is its ability to expand by sending out root “runners” that both hold the soil, and pop up to produce a new shrub, filling in the slope well enough that you can usually just leave it alone.  Dwarf Bush Honeysuckle is a tough plant.  You can prune it, walk through it, weed whack it, drive over it, and it will bounce back looking good within a few weeks.

Dwarf Bush Honeysuckle is also versatile.  You can plant Dwarf Bush Honeysuckle in full sun to part shade and it will grow well, and it is not too fussy about soil types.  Mature size is 2′-3′ tall and 2′-4′ wide.