Inkberry holly (Ilex glabra) works as a small hedge, especially if you plant a smaller variety such as 'Compacta'. This is an evergreen holly with small, round leaves that looks more like boxwood than like a traditional holly. Inkberry does have berries, so you would think that it's good for wildlife, though I don't know that for sure. Another possibility would be Fothergilla gardenii. I don't know what it offers to wildlife, but it offers the gardener nice white flowers in spring and glorious red-orange color in fall. Both of those shrubs prefer average to moist soil; inkberry can even take wet, poorly drained soil. If your yard is dry, you could plant fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica). Here is a link that might be useful: Ilex glabra

Birdsong72, this is Somerset Co. red clay (loamy red clay but it will crack in dry weather) and all I can say is it beats Union Co. clay/rocks by a mile. Some plants I just can't grow but the rhodies are okay (not great but okay). I have mostly catawba and maximus types or crosses and three yak hybrids. I grow a few in slightly raised mounds (about six inches originally, but they sunk). There's one white one growing in deep shade under pines, growing almost horizontal in search of light, and it blooms if the deer don't eat it. It has character. There's a monster lavender one near my front door, in a raised bed, leaching alkalinity from the foundation, and I have to hack it back. I've got native azaleas (austrinum, candulaceum, flammeum) under pines with full sun from the south - they need irrigation even though they're heavily mulched. The ones with a north exposure near but not under the pines don't need watering unless there is an absolute drought. Also mulched with pine needles. I've got ordinary hybrid Japanese type azaleas flourishing with morning sun. Have to cut them back. My mother with horrible Union Co. clay in a hollow can grow Jap. azaleas but not Rhodies; her neighbors up the hill (northern exposure) can grow Rhodies, maximus and catawba. A slope helps. Don't be a ground-cleaning, leaf blowing fanatic - the neighbor with pachysandra and fifty years of fallen leaves has big healthy rhododendrons and the obsessive leaf haters have wimpy spindly ones. My conclusion: you can grow many rhododendrons in some kinds of clay, in some locations, without a whole lot of trouble. Experiment with the cheap ones first. Slope, leaf or pine mulch, east or north exposure, not too much competion with tree roots will give the best results.

As someone who knows little about natives, the ones that come to mind are the most common: the smaller grevilleas, bottlebrushes and wattles, which you can clip to form a dense hedge. To find the best plants for your conditions, you could visit your local council nursery, as they typically grow a range of the toughest natives and can usually give you good advice about what would work well in your conditions. Plus, ratepayers are normally allowed to choose a certain number of their plants free of charge each year. Even if you have to pay, their tubestock is usually quite cheap (important if you're going to be buying quite a few). And natives typically are best planted out before they get too big, so tubestock/small plants would be better than larger advanced specimens anyway.

I appreciate the comments and concerns about maintenance, and the following is NOT a rant, but rather my attempt at clarifying the specifics of this site. These are things I've thought and talked about with the caretaker. I first approached him about this back in early Summer. Being recognized as a historic site by the state of NJ, they do get quite a few hands working on keeping things up. Volunteers from Rutgers University have been coming by this Autumn to clean, prime, and repaint the fence. The small water feature was donated by a church member, and installed by the caretaker. All the plants you see in there already were donated -- and in many cases planted -- by church members. They get together for leaf raking and shredding in Autumn. Brian, the caretaker, has shared with me his desire to create something really beautiful, but he's limited by cost. He's been expanding beds, but doesn't have much more than divisions of church members' plants to fill them. Since he lives on-site, this is effectively his back yard, and I saw him out there almost daily during the growing season -- he also maintains a small veggie garden for the church which I didn't photograph. [The church is across the street from my job, and down the street from the Starbucks from where I collect used coffee grounds daily.] I told him that a few old roses could make good "anchor shrubs" around which he can continue to spread the companion plants he already has in abundance. This is not an empty stretch of land that some people "say" they'd like improved but don't do anything about it -- and this is why I took interest in it. When I was in Buffalo, I was approached by my "block club" about helping to put together a proposal for a city grant to buy plants for the empty space at the end of the street. We did get a few volunteers for helping to put it together, but I did much of the work by myself. As my free time started to shrink from classes and a busier work schedule, "maintenance" became me going down there once a week to pull weeds and pick up garbage. Once things were planted, the attitudes I kept hearing from non-participating neighbors about how "the college kids will ruin it" morphed into "no one will take care of it" -- and it was the latter which became true. So in essence, I lived on a block full of people complaining about how the neighborhood looked crappy and no one was doing anything about it, yet they themselves were reticent to make the first step -- or even keep things going after others got things started for them. I lived there for three years, and became well aware -- as they knew I am a "downstater" myself -- of that "blame everyone else" attitude for their deep-seated Rust Belt woes. What I at first thought would be an example of the "Stone Soup" story coming to life and igniting a desire for further improvement became an example of how throwing some money at something isn't enough to make a change -- you need people willing to keep it going. But this isn't what I find at this location. Instead, I find someone with the desire, energy, and know-how to make something beautiful here, but is limited by funds. Yes, there are plenty of roses I can't grow in my yard which I'd like to see in this garden, but this isn't going to be "my garden". I'd like to see them there because they'd be appropriate there, and the caretaker agrees. As for tree maintenance, as far as I can tell none is performed, other than raking leaves. I will speak to Brian in more detail about having roses up in them, but he has already expressed interest when I asked if he'd want that. In the meantime, I don't have any roses on-hand right now that will be planted there. I do have an order for Spring, but that's it. I also have my own "inventory" from which I can propagate, as well as whatever I can propagate from the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, and whatever I can get donated. If it turns out I have too much, any "leftovers" will go back to the HRF. So, in the end, this will be about me saying to Brian "Hey, I have this, and I think it'd work over there....want it? Oh, and what about putting this one over here...it'll get this big eventually, so you'll need that much space." He's really the designer. I'm just sharing my rose info with -- and trying to "make plants happen" for -- him. :-) ~Christopher