Urban soils are usually disturbed, compacted, and infertile, resulting in poor vegetation establishment and high runoff rates. Managing stormwater to reduce volumes, peak flows, and pollutant loads are important goals to minimize the impact on receiving waters. Vegetation is an important element of roadside stormwater control measures, as healthy roadside vegetation can reduce erosion and runoff long-term. While grass is the typical vegetation along highways, wildflowers could be planted instead of grass to reduce maintenance and create better pollinator habitat. Field-based studies were used in three regions of North Carolina and monitored for 30 months to evaluate the potential improvements in infiltration through the use of tillage together with compost and either grass or wildflowers. A subset of plots had a tractor drive over the plots to see how compost and vegetation type respond to an impact force. Plots planted in wildflowers tended to have higher soil infiltration (30-43% increase) compared to grass across all sites. Compost application also enhanced the infiltration rate (46-50% increase) in two sites out of three. Tractor traffic substantially reduced infiltration rates in the wheel tracks but there was some evidence of recovery in the compost-amended wildflower plots. Wildflowers plots generally had higher infiltration rates and lower maintenance requirements compared to grass plots. This makes wildflowers a viable alternative to grass in vegetated stormwater practices. This study demonstrated the ability of wildflowers and compost to improve some soil properties, which make them a useful to traditional practices.