Thanks, Bogie! I also think that my ES does relatively well because it has winter protection. It is next to my house and in an area that does not get the howling wind during our harsh winter here. That's why I love paniculatas in my climate because I have my Limelight in a terrible location with strong wintry winds and it does just fine! What a wonderful plant.

In that case, I'd plant taller material -- in whatever artistic arrangement works -- at, and near, the ends of the run, and shorter and trailing material nearer the center of the run. It might help if you thought of it as a cross-section of a stream where the ends of the run are the banks and the center is the flowing stream. Where we "cut through" it for the x-section, the water begins to spill over the cut.

show a picture, including some surroundings. You'll need to leave an unfilled gap. But probably the better thing would be to disassemble a couple of sections of fence, construct the retaining wall and install the fence on top of it.

I hope there is gravel and finer rock and then the perforated pipe . We built a very high retaining wall and all those were installed to allow drainage from the wall it has stood the test of time for 13 yrs buitl right . Where is the fence going and what kind of fence .