Well, thanks to you folks at the ETN Plant Swap, this side of my house has an official theme! It's going to be a Tropical Garden! The dimensions of the garden are 14' x 15'. It gets sun from 9am to 5pm nearest the deck, and 10am to 6pm at the east edge. I've graded the area to be as close to level and flat as possible. We just tilled 5 inches of decomposed leaves into this bed. Actually, the leaves were so deep we didn't bring up a lot of clay... so it's mostly just finely mulched leaves, sticks and coffee grounds and an occasional hunk of clay at present. I stomped all over it thoroughly to try to compress it, but it's still a little spongy when walked on. Is this an acceptable medium for planting these plants, or should I be adding something? Here's what I have to put in it: Varigated Hibiscus (need to dig up?) Versi-peach Brugmansia (need to dig up?) White Brugmansia (need to dig up?) Clerodendrum thomsoniae (Bleeding Heart Vine) Cestrum nocturnum (Night Blooming Jessamine) Cannas in many colors and foliage colors! Buddleja (butterfly bush) Hibiscus syriacus (Rose of Sharon) Crocosmia Touch-me-not Grasses Tomatoes Colocasia esculenta (Taro root) Angel-wing begonia (B. x superba) Tamarindus indica (Tamarind) seedling (may not live, but if it does it will be a tree) Dracaena fragrans (Corn plant) cutting (need to dig up) Ponytail palm Yucca Daylilies Irises Kniphofia (Red hot pokers) Gladiolus Calladiums (need to dig up?) Castor bean Red honeysuckle I'm also getting: Musa basjoo sapling (Hardy banana) Now my question is, design! I'm not sure of the best way to lay all this out. Do Bananas give much shade? How tall should I expect it to get? If it does provide shade, perhaps it would be good to place near the deck so the deck gets some shade in the hot part of the day? A friend suggested getting a yellow locust for next to the deck, and planting the banana elsewhere. I'm interested in your opinions on this. I'd like some privacy from the neighbors to the east. What to plant on that border that won't get too tall and block the sun for the other plants? I'm thinking 12 feet maximum. Are Buddlejas and Altheas good for this? I'd like a nice relaxing area in the middle of the bed, where I can do a little sunbathing without feeling like people can see me. I have lots of cobbles of all sizes, and quite a lot of marble pieces. Would either of these be useful here? Another thing that would be helpful to know in planting this is heights and space requirements. It's a long list so I'm going to start researching it, but it would be helpful if you know offhand what heights, widths, spacing, and other requirements or restrictions I should know about - I'm so new to tropicals!

Thank you for all the input. Some interesting options I hadn’t considered. I don’t think we can plant a vine on the fence (though it would be beautiful) because it is my neighbors’ fence and they have goats. So anything that grows through or on the fence will be eaten in short order. As far as groundcover/grass goes, we are not trying to grow grass there. The green on the ground you see are just weeds. We are going to clean it all up and mulch everything well once the rest of the plants are in place. We went shopping this weekend and bought cherry laurels, Japanese ligustrum, wax myrtle, cleyera, evergreen and deciduous viburnum, anise, winterberry holly, some more cryptomeria and a couple thuja gg, panicle and macrophylla hydrangea, distyllium, rhododendron, fothergilla, and some perennials and creepers for along the wall. I know it sounds like a lot for the space, but the picture only shows about half of the area we are working on. We also have a lot of other places we can plant things if we find we bought too much.

I am in a condo which is 8 stories high on the 8th floor I do not want the tree to grow 8 stories high. I said 8 stories high as landscapes / gardeners of places.I contacted said it is an issue as 1) you get full direct sun 2) Being 8 stories high you get 100KM direct winds being on the Lake which is important vs someone on ground floor. 3) Being on concrete its hard to have a 4 season cedar or evergreen or living tree as concrete will not be good for the tree you need special plants. I cannot use curtains as I cannot adhere anything to the concrete or anchor anything to the floor. It is standard size balcony width of just over 4 feet. All I am trying to do is to block one side so the neighbors who I can spit on this is how close they are so I don't see me outside nor do I see them. As we are in a pandemic and I work from home I want to work outside without have 30 neighbors staring at me. Plan A was Bamboo fence Plan B was get an INside room divider and take it in and out every single day Plan C was what everyone recommneded was doing privacy hedge with mature trees that I order and have delivered. Places I have called said the 3 factors above may they dont know what tree will survive in those conditions being in a container all year round. My frriend suggested I reach out to this group

After thinking about your comments and looking again at the pictures of how things look now, I've come to the conclusion that it really isn't "privacy" I'm looking for, but I miss all the greenery hiding the neighbor's house. Here's another pic of how the tree helped screen the neighbor's house, added greenery, depth and texture to the whole area. We've been in the house 35 years and that tree was probably 30+ years old. I think for now, we'll just plant some Tecoma Stans, they're fast growers, especially in this climate. We got the Sparky color - Maroon and Gold for ASU - our alma mater! If I remember, I'll post pics as they grow to hide the house. If you scroll up, you'll see one on the other side of the yard (between the ficus and the orange tree) that's about 5' higher than the wall. Next up - figuring out how to SHADE the area, since we lost the shade of the tree - but that will be a different post! THANKS ALL!