There must be some reason why the designer recommended something as boring as monkey grass for an entire section. Does it drain poorly? What kind of sun/shade does it get? It seems you prefer something evergreen? What about a camellia (assuming it is not in full sun)?

I think a picture would help. Need to be sure and leave access TO the gas meter or the meter reader will hack away at your plants to reach the meter.

I'll tell you a great book to get: The Southern Gardener's Book of Lists. It has plants sorted every which way: shrubs for shade, evergreen shrubs, for wet areas, trees for wildlife, trees with ugly litter ... lists of plants for every condition you can think of!

Here is a link that might be useful: Book of Lists

The area drains as well as any other, which means...it drains like it's on GA red clay.

Here's a photo of what we are working with. We are effectively going to truck in dirt to create a real bed, and yank up what the builder placed because they just planted them in the clay.

The gas meter is next to the 2nd window from the the left.

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Oh that is awful! I can't believe they put the gas meter on the front of the house like that.

One note of caution before I forget: if you dig up the dirt around the foundation and replace it, be sure to have it retreated for termites if you are using the old-fashioned drench method of control (as opposed to the bait system, which I don't believe in, btw). Because if you dig within about 12 inches of the foundation you are destroying the chemical barrier that was created when the house was treated. No one ever mentioned this to us and we got termites within 3 years.

So you are talking about the large brick wall to the left of the big window and going around the gas meter back to the end of the sidewalk? And this is a full sun area?

I think it would be nice to create a picturesque arrangement so that from the house it looks attractive out the window as well as being attractive as you walk by on the outside. Lower growing shrubs, perennials and perhaps one small specimen tree (japanese maple is popular in this arrangement and comes in dwarf forms so it stays small). Place the tree on a small mounded area for visual interest. A small boulder or two would be a nice accent or even a small piece of statuary or a birdbath.

Keep in mind that for almost any shrub you like, you can research if there is a dwarf cultivar for it. If you choose your shrubs wisely, you should not need to prune every year to keep it under control.

I really can't think about how to conceal that gas meter. You probably need something on either side of it so that you can visually hit it from both angles. Maybe someone else will have an idea.

Both Woodlander's Nursery in Aiken SC and it's associate nursery Nurseries Carolinian have seperate websites listing suitable plants. They are fabulous to deal with and you can look each plant up seperately on the web if their catalogs do not give enough info. Unfortunately, I believe, at least Woodlander's has stopped delivery last day of March.

Camelias might be the answer, although I will still have to think about it. I know my wife likes them... but we have non flowering shrubs elsewhere around the house.

Does it make sense to have non flowering as the back drop, and perhaps something for color in front, to make us both happy?

Esh, good ideas. I honestly had not thought about putting 'stuff' other than living things in the beds.

Did a little work today to clean things up...

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