We have a bank something similar to that between our driveway and the neighbour's. Our bank faces south so is in full hot sun all day and the soil is heavy clay to boot! Grass refused to grow there. It looks to me that the reason your grass is dying is probably white grub damage. So you could deal with that issue and then replant the grass if you want to keep it simple. Otherwise, the issues I see are (1) that you are likely going to need a path of some sort along the top of the bank to allow access from the driveway to the garage door and on into the backyard and (2) you will have to work with your neighbour if you are going to plant anything but grass. It makes no sense to plant just to your property line, leaving a foot of so of grass on the neighbour's side of the property line. That would be a maintenance problem for both you and the neighbour. If you did plant the whole area with your neighbour in agreement, you might want to consider some of the plants that worked for us. Thyme on the flat part abutting the neighbor's driveway might be ideal. Orange-scented thyme, (perhaps mixed with lemon thyme) is a very fragrant, low maintenace plant that can take light foot traffic. Lavender grows well on our bank because the steep grade gives it excellent drainage (even in our awful clay!) Culinary sage also does well and provides a nice gray-green foliage that I call ever-gray (it doesn't quite stay evergreen but just sort of freeze-dries - I can still harvest/use it for cooking all winter!) Any other herbs that strike your fancy also fit in well. Both my neighbour and I harvest herbs from the bank so it's useful and attractive for both of us. Roses do well on the bank. I mainly use seed-grown Angel roses (miniature China roses) that you can't find in a garden center but are easy to grow from seed if you are so inclined. But ordinary roses (I have Hot Cocoa there) also like the conditions. Butterfly bush also likes the well drained slope and does wonderfully well there, providing height and a bit of screening (as does the larger rose). Tulips and other spring bulbs appreciate the drainage. Summer bulbs like those conditions too - think lilies... Planting the bank is the easy part. The first things though are sorting it out with your neighbour and making a practical access route at the top.

Hi Bill, Just wanted to report back after my visit to UF at Gainesville. First off, I wanted to say there was a very large slope by a building that had a huge area of the asiatic jasmine. It was in full sun and looked great. The only thing I noticed that was not that great was that the area was so wide it could not be reached for maintenance from either side. Therefore, the long strands were visible in the central, unreachable portion, and it looked a little unkempt. So, I guess the moral of that story is to make sure it can be reached by a weedwhacker and an edger from both sides if you want to achieve a neat and tidy appearance. A ground cover I had not thought of is dwarf Indian Hawthorne. I saw it in so many places in full sun, no care and it looked great. Although when I looked it up it said it got to 3-6 feet, I didn't see any that were higher than about two. Maybe there are newer types. Most seemed to be lower than that. I have a friend who has it here in Sarasota, and hers is about two foot. I know she doesn't prune it or do anything to it and it always looks great and blooms in the spring. I know it is higher than your criteria, but I saw so much of it that looked good, that I thought it would be worth mentioning. I will mention another, although again, it probably doesn't meet your criteria. Wart fern as a ground cover is beautiful and carefree, maybe a foot tall or a tiny more. However, I think it does best in partial shade. I am experimenting with it this year in my garden and it is doing well and starting to spread a bit in half day sun. However, it gets late morning, early afternoon, hot direct sun. Shaded in morning and late afternoon. I have to tell you where I am coming from. I know you are looking for visibility from the street. My DH and I are the opposite. We frequently are in the garden in our pajamas, or, in his case, a lot less! It is essential to us that we have as much privacy as possible from the street as well as all our neighbors. The first thing we did with our landcaping when we moved here (even before) was start screening in a big way. I can report that he is now able to shower outside or skinny dip in the pool after yardwork as needed. Feeling like I'm outdoors most of the day is almost essential to me. Our home has many very large windows and no window treatments! This also makes it essential to have great screening from all angles. Although I've got to say I really don't care much if someone wants to see an old lady in her pajamas through the windows at night. Although we like our yard to look nice from the street, we absolutely have to have it look nice when we look out. My viewpoint from the inside is what I work on all the time. I just wanted to mention that I saw so many lovely, lovely vitex in bloom at UF. There were groupings with firebush (the yellow, shorter type) and coonties that were just stunning. However, some of the vitex reached 10 feet or so. A plant I had forgotten about that I absolutely love is oakleaf hydrangea. It was not in bloom, but the foliage is so lovely on its own. I didn't know thryallis did so well up there. Crinums and European Fan Palms were absolutely beautiful. I really like that picture #7. It is lovely and sort of what I had envisioned with the sabals, coontie, palms, etc. However, having had experience with saw palmetto, I would never plant it unless I knew it was going to be a permanent planting (although I love its look). We had a lot at another property, and tried to dig up some of it to plant something else. It involves a bobcat or backhoe. Definitely not a drainfield candidate, I don't think. I love the silvery one like in the picture, though. Well, that's all I've got. Good luck, and whatever you do, let us know. I also love sunworshiper's fountain idea, or even a hardscape with an umbrella, a table and chair for an afternoon beverage. Have fun! Anna

The grass that's planted with the Phuopsis is not an evergreen, not sure of it's botanical name, common name might be granny's garters. In the cement planter on top of the tree stump there's Kenilworth ivy (Cymbalaria mularis), Labrador violets (Viola labradorica) and 3 pitiful Hyacinths. In late spring I plunk my Brugmansia Peaches & Cream on top of them. It works for me. Beside the stump there's a patch of Euphorbia, amygdaloides robbiae I think, lost it's tag. I planted a 'Graham Thomas' Rose in there as well the only trouble with that is, it's not Graham Thomas. Lesson learned, from now on I'm only buying Roses from The Old Rose Nursery on Hornby Island. In the same small area I have a Annabelle Hydrangea that hasn't done it's thing yet, a scraggely Nandina and a clump of Hymalayan Honeysuckle (Leycesteria formosa) a shrub for height, it gets those great berries in the fall, the bees love it and so do I. On the fence in that same little area I have Clematis Guernsey Cream, Mrs P.T. James and Haku Ooakan this one is on it's last legs, must get another I love it. There's Pulmonaria rubra and some other little tidbits in there, but off hand I can't think of their names. I had to get the books out to give you the botanical names for a couple of these, I refer to most of my plants as you mean that thingy on the fence with the yellow flowers. Mmmmmm that's one for fragrance in the garden. Later, A......

Hi Greenman, It's nice to see you posting and I enjoyed reading about all the landscaping you've been doing. I can't believe how much planting you've done...you sure have been busy! The heat and sunlight here always will be a challenge and I have found many 'full sun' plants grow fine for me with only a couple of hours of direct sun or even in almost completely dappled shade. With your succulents, did you do a massive amount of soil improvement to give them the drainage they need? In general, clay drains too slowly for them. Since I have evil clay soil, I only grow succulents in containers where they can have the near-perfect drainage they require. They do still make burlap bags, and you're most likely to find them at farm supply stores like Tractor Supply Company or farm-oriented feed and seed stores. I usually only see them here in stores in the spring when they sell them right beside the seed potatoes so you can, presumably, store your harvested potatoes in them a few months down the line. One way to help your container plants in the hot months is to buy a larger pot and place the entire plant, container and all, inside the larger pot. That gives the potted roots some insulation from the heat since the outer pot would take the brunt of the heat. I look forward to hearing about your vegetable garden as you build and develop it. Ditto what George said about the native elms here. We have them all over the place on our property and they are tough, having survived all kinds of drought and years of flooding rainfall equally well. To go along with the plants Marcy suggested, the plant that grows best for me in a hot exposure is gomphrena 'Strawberry Fields'. It grows alongside our driveway/roadway/rural mail box and rarely wilts, even in August. It gets nothing but rainfall, being far beyond the reach of a waterhose. My most reliable summer plants in a southern or western exposure are echinaceas, gomphrenas, zinnias and verbena bonariensis. All of those are either perennial or reseeding annuals at our place. Dawn