I haven't checked hardiness for your zone, but how about nepeta Walkers Low? It's growing on my west-facing hillside on poor soil in desert heat. I watered it every few days after I put it in, but many in my area don't supplement once the plant is established. Other suggestions - achilleas are very tough, drought-tolerant plants. Moonshine is a popular cultivar. I have Moonshine, Paprika and plain white a. millefolium on my hill. Ornamental grasses can take a lot of abuse. I'm not sure about hardiness, but look at pennisetum cultivars. I have Hameln and Karley Rose and p. orientale species. Other plants which grow under harsh conditions here probably aren't hardy enough for your area - agastaches, penstemons, desert salvias (s. greggii, s. pachyphylla, s.trident, s. darcyi). If any are cold hardy, they should do well in heat and poor soil. Cheryl

Nah, I disagree with most of the above. I do my fall planting in earnest in late August and with the unusually cool & rainy summer we've had this year, I've been transplanting and planting all summer and pretty much letting nature do the work of watering in this year, its a good year for planting. Any kind of succulent or cactus can be planted and just walked away from, meaning totally ignored which is usually the best thing since most deaths come from too much molly-coddling and over watering. Treat them like forgotten children and they will reward you. So I totally disagree there's no plant that can be planted in August. I just moved a well established cactus here smack in the middle of the day in the hot sun and it won't mind a bit & I'm going to dig up some hesperaloe's tomorrow and move them once the roots callous. Wow, you've just described a perfect spot for certain plants. First to come to mind is the one I just mentioned, hesperaloe or 'pink yucca', however, its not a yucca, its in the lily family. I looked it up, it will take zone 5 if dry. These look great in a grouping. Stick them in the ground and forget them, they will do fine. I've seen many plantings where they mix them with drifts of grasses and the texture is to die for. Its used along roads here due to its low maintenance, looks and low water needs. Looks stunning. True yucca is another easy plant but choose carefully, there are nice well behaved pretty ones and others that are bullies and become something you regret. Yucca rostrata s a good one if it will grow in zone 5 and your winter is on the dry side or the drainage is very good. Little Bluestem grass. In a spot like that you should be able to grow the highly enviable stiff light blue vertical specimens because they love torture like that and they tend to flop in good soil with too much moisture or shade. Water in the plants for the first week, then they will do fine on their own. I've been moving them around all summer, I just finished planting some more and they are unflapped. Santa Rosa will be restocked coming up with all the really nice types when their fall sales begin. They are very popular so they ran out early this year of every type. Many other ornamental grasses would also work (but bluestem is so gorgeous I have to push it). Native grasses would do the best, imported ones such as the over used Miscanthus grasses are often water suckers that would need supplemental watering when dry in that kind of sun and there's all that horrible spring trimming of sharp leaves with those plus that dying in the center down the road when they must be dug up and divided which is not fun to do. Natives are much easier. Russian Sage is a plant that would definitely do well there. Water it in when planting and keep it moist for a couple weeks and it should do fine for you with little or no follow up. Too much water makes them flop. Once September gets here, you should be fine. Crepe Myrtle would be easy in the heat but it might not do zone 5, you could check, they will take the dry and heat with ease and bloom over a long period. Rose of Sharon is another workhorse that seems to take any amount of sun and drought and bloom without problems. Any native plant that is a sun lover in your area will also prove to be a good choice. You might want to google to see whats native in your parts, these plants will be OK on their own since they are adjusted to your conditions and soil type without human intervention. Woops, I nearly forgot. Artemisia is a great choice for that kind of spot. They would do fine. I just planted three Prowis Castle to add to a silver garden I'm working on and they adjusted right in, no problem, no sulks. Valerie finnis is a great one. I just moved some to fill in a spot. This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Thu, Aug 7, 14 at 23:37

Hi lqynn – those rocks are small enough that they should not present a problem. To grow a healthy lawn you will want to make sure that your soil is not compacted. If your soil is very hard you may want to till about 6-8" down to break it up and allow oxygen and water to permeate deeper. Also for your topsoil I recommend 2-3" of organic compost preferably minus manure which you can till into the soil if you do need to till. Lawns can be both incredibly water wasteful and have the potential to pollute waterways unless maintained organically. There are a number of alternative options that are both lush and green while reducing water use and fertilizer use that you may be interested in. That being said sometimes lawn is the best option if you have children that will be using it to play on in which case maintaining a lawn organically has the benefit of reducing water use as well as eliminating the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides. 1. Build healthy soils - till if needed and add compost and water 2. Use regionally appropriate grass seeds/sod 3. Water less frequently and more deeply – install efficient irrigation heads with a larger droplet size 4. Set your mower higher so the grass blades are longer – helps reduce watering 5. Dethatch and aerate to allow oxygen and moisture down into the soil 6. Add light layers of compost during off seasons vs. applying chemical fertlizers 7. Consider overseeding with clover as a natural nitrogen fixer. Best of luck with your project!!

James, I would urge you to consider simply "bombing off" existing vegetation with a non-selective herbicide like glyphosate (Roundup, et al), then allowing regrowth and resprouting of additional turf/weed seeds, repeat herbicide app, then plant your meadow plants whenever that sowing is recommended for your area. Your climate is apt to be far more mild than where I operate. Here, we do "dormant seeding" in late fall, after all chance of seed sprouting is safely past for that year. We want the frost action to work the seeds into the soil (it does so perfectly) but this may not apply to your situation. You need to enlist the help-I be there's thousands of folks into what you're contemplating, right in your area-and see what works where you live. But generally, tilling up the soil is neither necessary nor desirable. Too much soil loss. We even use a no-till drill for most of our seeding here in Wisconsin. Working up the soil = erosion and new weed seeds sprouting. ps.......oh, and please don't think you have to remove the rocks. They are absolutely a part of the scene there, and any plants that naturalize in your planting should be types adapted to rocky situations. Otherwise, you're starting your "natural" garden right off the bat with the biggest fight against nature you've ever seen in y our life! Not that you said you were moving rocks out of the way. Just saying.....I had some "prairie" planted around a wildlife scrape one time, by a very good native restoration landscape firm. Soil is stoney where this occurred. So there was this company thinking they had to rake or somehow remove all of these stones. I said why? They are part of what's here.....not foreign to the site. Anyway, that one surprised me. Seemed out of keeping with the job.