Question
My wife and I have a house in the county in the area where we live.  The lot is approximately one acre with a drainage ditch running along the front (long side) and one side (short side)of our property.  The ditch is approximately 3' wide and 3' deep and I was wondering how to make it as low maintenance as possible without using roundup to kill the foliage.  My neighbors spray their part of the ditch and it is very ugly and eroding the ditch bank.  Just wondering I currently us a weedeater to clean the ditch a couple time a month.

Answer
The roundup solution is probably the lowest maintenance (not necessarily costs the least nor is legal), other than paving it over.  Sadly, the weed-eater route is #2.  A couple of times a month, eh?  Is it lined with Kudzu?  Wow.  The most common grass liners are Bermuda, fescues, annuals, and finally riprap.  Perhaps a riding mower, however the swale is pretty narrow...
 
On the 損aving it over?solution, many municipalities will NOT let you denude or remove vegetation, as it has beneficial filtration properties for heavy metals, solids, phosphorus, and other organic pollutants (called bio-filtration),  and also reduces the water抯 velocity, thus helping with flooding and erosion issues.    These swales also encourage the deposit of sand & aggregates that would otherwise find their way into the rivers and waterways.

So, as you beat back the grass, remind yourself that it has a beneficial impact to your neighborhood, even though it seems like a pain in the rear.   

One other solution (and I抦 not kidding) is to fence it in, and get a goat, horse, cow, or other ungulate, zoning permitting, to keep it trimmed down the old fashioned way.  Plus, you might get a few steaks out of the deal!

Wish I could offer more encouraging news, Ron!  ~Marc

PS - If you have the room & the desire, you could actually make it BIGGER/WIDER so you can get a riding mower down into it.  Just a quick thought.