I was wondering about planting yaupons. Just not certain if their texture look will be compatable with the young Foster holly, pecan, and Shumard oak trees growing along the property line and almost 20 feet behind the once solid row of Loblolly trees. This vacant half acre lot where my loblolly trees in question, are growing is in Northeastern OK. The soil is a silty loam and situated only 2 1/2 miles west of the Arkansas River. The lot does not flood, but the fine grains of sediment which make up the silty loam soil cause the rain which falls upon the land and storm runoff which overflows the lot, to stay on the surface much longer and only perculate down into the soil slowly. That is, unless on parts of the lot where the elevation is so sloped that the water quickly continues on as fast moving, storm runoff. At the end of the line of loblollies, where the only two are growing fairly close, the water table seems higher, and over the last 4 years, these two loblollies have struggled from too much moisture in the soil during extended rain periods. These two loblollies had been planted at the same time as all the others, but due to their struggle to overcome the fairly high water table which begins to show up if one digs near them only two to three feet down, yet even more shallow, during extended slow rain events. These two trees have managed to survive, but are currently only about a third of the size to which the other Loblolly trees have grown. The soil under what used to be a double staggered solid looking row of Loblolly pines is slightly more acidic due to the pine needles that fell, in fairly small amounts, to the ground beneath them. I suspect the acid soil levels in that area will continue to elevate as the remaining loblolly trees begin their stage of dropping lower leaves and branches to form tall trunks beneath spreading pine needle canopies. Plenty of times the soil is moist, in the winter, spring, and fall, but there still are several months in the year when the soil condition would be too dry for most of the acid, damp soil loving flowering shrubs. and the area gets too much sun for many of those, which locally, need to be planted in morning sun and afternoon shade conditions I like the Magnolia suggestion, as long as it is a cultivar which will not overpower the lighter look of the loblolly trees. maybe Magnolias like the 'Jane' cultivar. Then again, I also like the look of Chaste trees. The only thing that has held me back from planning to use those is my concern over the fact that they go dormant, here beginning in late fall, through winter and the very earliest weeks close to spring. In fact the local chaste trees do not leaf out in our area again until mid to late May or early June. Our summer, 8, sun exposure zone is okay for the suggested wax myrtle. Still a little iffy, though. Especially when I consider our border winter temperate USDA Zone, where, even though our winter climate averages closer to the 7a USDA temperature zones, we still get plenty shots of colder low levels of the 6b temperate zone, which occur in waves of time most often during our January and early February winter period.

For the Musa - you can plant out a tiny pup and have it reach a 4-5 foot trunk + 4 foot leaves in one summer - lots of water and high nitrogen fertilizer! For the winter, you can dig up a stem (shallow root system) and pot it up in a big pot - minimum 18" diameter and height for the pot. One year I built an insulation box over the stems and put lights inside for heat - I was able to get the trunks to survive above ground over winter. They're pretty easy growers! Here is a pic from 2006 when I first started growing them. This started the summer as two 1 foot tall plants. They tend to pup like crazy when growing happily.

Don't do that! If you're like me you'll come home with a car full of plants and still not know what to do. Lol. Suggest googling gardening on slope and see what you find. Take a preliminary list so you're not seduced by all the pretty colours. I'd start with a couple evergreen shrubs, something flowering for spring and maybe a big grass to give you some structure. Then assess what you'd like in terms of colour, size, form for fill in perennials, annuals and ground over. Plan to buy 3 , 5, 7 of things to avoid spotty look of a bunch of individual selections. Cruise your neighbourhood for what is doing well. Hit up gardening friends for divisions to stretch your budget. Spend a lot of time sitting on that patio and day dreaming about what you'd like to see. That last one is very important. Lol Here are some good inspiration pictures.

I like the simpler lines of the bed in Yardvaark's drawing and second the suggestion to make the bed include the crabapple. The plantings will create their own undulations - the bed edge doesn't need them unless to accommodate plants such as where it goes around the crabapple. If you don't want a staight line, one long sweeping curve looks far more graceful than many undulating curves and will also be easier to mow along. Consider the shape of the lawn you are creating, not only the shape of the garden bed. The deeper the bed, the more layers of plants you can fit in and the better the screening, and also the better the plants will look. I would consider at least a few evergreens for winter interest if nothing else. Either conifers or something like rhododendrons, many of which are hardy enough and will grow large enough. I would totally rethink several of your shrubs since what you have isn't suitable for a range of reasons. There are more shrubs than you have space for, even considering that you want them growing together as a screen. I'd replace the rose of Sharon, both because its shape and late leafing out makes it a poor screening choice, and because it only blooms for a few weeks at best, spending most of the season as a somewhat ungraceful green blob, so isn't even particularly ornamental to my eye. Two other shrubs, barberry and burning bush are both invasives. (I am frankly appalled that a nursery in this day and age would suggest either plant.) That means that birds eat the berries and then plant new ones wherever they leave droppings, most especially a problem in unmaintained areas such as woodland, fields and parks, but burning bush will give you many, many, many seedlings in your own yard as well. Barberry has thorns that make walking barefoot hazardous, and having grown up in a home with them, they catch every blown leaf and piece of trash which then need to be removed. Ugg! Here is an article that gives some alternatives, all of which I grow and like, or visit some other garden centers with your layout and see what else they have to suggest. Blueberries will also have stunning fall color along with white spring flowers and berries either for you or the birds. Far more attractive than burning bush with far less maintenance. One of my favorite long-blooming shrubs is Hydrangea paniculata which will grow fine in all day to half day sun, and blooms for something like 3-4 months here, depending on the cultivar. They range in height from something like 4' to 12', so you should be able to find one to suit. Limelight is quite popular, and my favorite, Quickfire, blooms from late June until hard freeze in October, starting white and then changing over to cherry pink. If the chain link is yours, it would be a great idea to grow some vines on it, since they would have a relatively shallow footprint, but add interest and screening ability. You could fasten trellises to the fence in places to allow them to grow taller. Or if it isn't yours, place trellises in front of the fence 6"-12". Site the trellises so that they block the views you want blocked from your most common viewing locations such as windows or seating areas since they will be there year round. A couple suggestions include a selection of the native honeysuckle Lonicera sempervirens 'Major Wheeler' with red flowers in a mass right now, and then continuing in lesser numbers all summer. There are also selections of the same species with flowers in yellow and orange, and there's a photo of Blanche Sandman in the article linked above. There are a number of clematis that would work such as jackmanii with deep purple flowers. Look for type 3 pruning (hard prune) since those are summer blooming and easiest to grow. I think you want to look at the ultimate size of your shrubs vs. the number specified. For instance, Lynwood Gold forsythia get to be 6'-9' in height and width, and really looks best in its natural fountain form. So plant it where there's space for it to grow with its natural grace, and only plant as many as there is space for (perhaps 3 instead of 4 in the space allotted?). Don't plan on pruning it please, though I do understand the need to prune the backside some to prevent it growing into the neighbor's yard - just try to plant far enough from the fence so that won't be needed. It can grow around the base of the crab a bit. I find that the Missouri Botanical Garden's Plant Finder is a great resource for accurate plant size if you type in just the name at the top as well as using the option to search for plants that fit your needs using the menu below. Once the screen of shrubs is planted, then I'd worry about adding the perennials. They are the icing on the cake and not involved with the main function of the bed, so they can be added later.