Sammy, I have ordered so many seeds from Plants of the SW. Last fall I started adding native grasses which are easy from seed and so pretty. Most everything I am growing withstood the drought with very little trouble. The Muhly grasses are harder to get germination but are very much worth the effort. Santa Rosa Gardens sells many native grasses and has good sales each spring and fall. I ordered quite a few last fall. I also ordered a few from High Country Gardens. You can build over time and add special things. I started Desert Marigolds a few years ago and these have naturalized. Blue foliage with yellow flowers all spring, summer into December, like perfect bouquets. They would do well on your slope. My property is on a slope, but not as steep. I wish I had a slope exactly like you have, there are so many drought loving plants you could grow there without worrying about drainage. You could also add cold hardy agaves which would look great with the grasses and do very well in that situation for a touch of exotic and good texture combinations. Large rocks would look fantastic. The choices of plants is endless because you have that perfect drainage and can grow things otherwise impossible. Cold hardy agaves include: Parryi, Harvardiana, shindaggers and a couple others. Check out High Country Gardens for cold hardy ones and other drought loving plants. We have a cactus show here in OKC each spring and you can buy the agaves there and Kelly Grummons at Cold Hardy Cactus online sells them too. When I saw the photo, I just went crazy and thought "Oh wow, let me plant that!" Its perfect for the kinds of plants I love and it looks like you have it all ready for planting by clearing it off. This could be a whole lot of fun to do. The money, yep, its cheap. Many of the grasses establish well in one season and then its just low maintenance. I have run out of room here and need a bigger area just for the grasses because I wish I could do drifts. We did river rock gravel and its fine now but the first season we had some trouble with runoff and I had to go retrieve some of it in the wheel barrow. I think you would need some heavy rough edged gravel other than river rock to keep it from sliding downhill until its established. Here a some photos of the plants I have that I grew mostly from seeds I got at Plants of the Southwest. The yellow flowers are the Desert Marigolds, bitterweed and dogweed, there is a Silver King Artemsia by the wall and a Rabbit Bush, the pink ones are Flame Flowers a large Russian Sage by the street and various grasses, native "weeds" and cactus. This was shot in August in the middle of the drought.

Retaining wall OR get someone to come even it out so that it is more of a longer, less steep slope. Vinca major survives in both sun and shade and survives when it is dry...but, needs to be planted in a moist, cool time of year, preferably fall...and watered a bit, in some cases, the first year. it is evergreen and will look better, once established, if it is mowed or weed-wacked back once a year. I pulled up a few sprigs from a burned down house that was long abandoned. It is now covering my back yard. Once a year, I help it by moving a few pieces in the bare areas and/or burying the trailing stems to make the groundcover thicker. I have seen ivy used, too, but that climbs, so means more upkeep.

Nice house. Do keep your privacy hedge by the road but cut back the bu(es) closest to the driveway as may be needed for safety reason -- to not block you view of the road in both directions.. Keep a dozen or so healthy feet of lawn only behind it. Budget and energy permitting, of course, consider creating a terrace several feet below your sidewalk -- or at least part of it -- and put short plants between terrace wall and sidewalk and taller plants below the wall. Then, scattered around your yard where what specific plants that you want to plant can get the sun it needs, create several slightly curved short walls to create terraces with a level planting area above the wall -- preferably with all about the same width. Depending upon how tall the wall is, you could put taller plants on the slope that remains below the wall and shorter plants in the level planting area. If in some places, your terrace wall isn't that tall, you may need to put the shorter plants on the slope at the base of the wall and put the taller plants in the level place above the terrace. Keep the rest of the yard as lawn, adding moss or ground cover in any shady place(s) where the grass doesn't grow well. If Lliriope will grow where you live, consider that for outlining your driveway. Would remove the arch from the front yard but, as long as it is tall enough to walk under it, you could put in on a side yard ... a gateway from front yard to back with a green fence (hedge of rose bushes or other flowering bushes or shrubs that keep their leaves and look good all year round) on each side of the arch. Would reserve the flower pots for your back yard patio. When you start on that, let us know.

Jules my friend has a similar area - in shade almost all day and then wham! That hot, relentless, late afternoon to evening sun. Full shade plants keel over and die. Full sun plants die a slow death because they don't get enough sun and then get blasted in their weak condition. Over the years we tried several things that just didn't work, at least not for more than a season or two. Our latest attempt is sedum kamtschaticum. I have it on a very dry, hot, full-sun, southwest facing slope at the edge of my yard along the street (no sidewalks - in addition to sun the heat just radiates off the asphalt all day) and it does well there. In her yard, her situation was an island bed in the middle of the yard, with three large oaks, surrounded by grass, and as I said, in shade almost all day. There was just this southwest end of the bed that got hit with the sun in late afternoon. The soil is much richer than my poor lean, inch-of-soil-on-solid-ledge slope. So I was hesitant to try the sedum. But it's been about 5 years and it's doing quite well. The bloom might not be as prolific as mine but I happen to love sedum for the foliage anyway, and having a green groundcover is better than bare dirt, lol. Good luck with whatever you choose! :) Dee