Bang on, for me at least. The only addendum I would have to make to what I said has to do with keeping the box level over time. It strikes me that if you make it bottomless as I suggested, the soil will tend to sink, and may get under the edges, eventually lifting the box. To avoid that you'd have to anchor the box to the ground. This problem does not arise if you put a bottom (or partial bottom) on it - it will rot eventually, but so will the walls and fence and everything needs to be replaced eventually. I should actually know by now that Frankie is always right, but I'm a slow learner... if you do as she suggested and use a couple of large containers, of course rot would not be an issue. You would still have to compact the soil so they didn't list one way or the other over time (especially if you weed or replant in the ground around them). That can be tricky, so there is also an advantage to following the other part of her suggestion to use trellis structures that are not attached to the planter but rather stuck into it. Perhaps the best option is to take yet another hint from your picture: lay paving slabs into the bed in that area with the soil well-compacted underneath, and put the box on that. Plants can't root into the ground that way though, and will be more dependent on you for water. So if you tend to go away for long trips in the summer, not the best idea. KarinL

hmm- the rhodie flowers first, then the rose... how about a bank of tall lillies? I have the old fashioned orange turk's caps standing up through a bed of irises and daylilles, and they make a great vertical statement. either holly hocks or Lupines are another suggestion- again, a great vertical statement, and the lupines are about mny favorite flower in the whole world for the smell alone! and I'd be tempted to put some annuals- verbenas, or allysums in the very front of the bed. (actually, if you can find it, there is a perennial alyssum that makes standing bouquets of tiny yellow flowers that is one of the best foils for every other flower in the garden in the spring)

I have a similar area. Fence is 4', and a row of hemlocks have been limbed up to about 15". I had originally planned to put some nice full rhodies, etc. there and grow a tall shrubby understory, but the darn squirrels have systematically broken to bits every single one I've put in the last 2 springs. Hundreds of dollars of damage and dead shrubs, since i bought the biggest ones I could afford to fill the space faster. So..the "new" plan is to put lattice panels up between the trees all along the row. Perennial plants seem safe, it's only early spring that they rip and break and destroy the shrubs. So I'm thinking some vines maybe on the trellis.

A few very hardy evergreen shrubs I currently grow in z8 Texas, alkaline soil, some caliche: Dwarf yaupon holly Golden Euonymus ’Sunshine’ ligustrum Abelia — ‘Kaleidoscope’, ‘Edward Goucher’, ‘Twist of Lime”. Lots of great drought-tolerant perennial choices ... you can’t go wrong with Salvia greggiis or other salvias/sages. Rosemary would do well, too, as a shrub. Other tough ones: Gauras, catmint, Oenothera ‘Lemon Drop’ (mine below in hell strip), Drift rose (also below), Mexican Heather, dwarf Nandina ‘Firepower’, feather grasses (make sure they aren’t invasive in your area), and the toughest of all — lantana. Mealy sage with a ‘Texas Pink’ phlox (will bloom in a couple more weeks) and a mid-size crape myrtle that I limb up: