mosesong: Well, I hope I am wrong here, and that does happen, but I think you were snookered by the AgroTower people. I went to their website and read all the claims, and it looks like hokum to me. There are a lot of these small companies making things intended to lighten the gardener's wallet. Any other benefits are secondary. Don't expect a big rush by commercial growers to use this expensive technique. My guess is that by the 2nd year, you will be disgusted with these things and throw them out in the trash. I will be very surprised if you ever get much more than cereal garnish from these twin towers. Each pot shades over 70% of the pot below it, and, while berries will produce some when hanging out of a pot, they bear a lot more when the runners are allowed to root. As an experiment, why don't you transplant some of the runners to a patch in the ground next spring of about 10x10 or even larger if you can. Plant Junebearers, not neverbearers. I hope you have kept them separate. I think you will see the difference in the first producing season of the berries in the ground. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Those wildflowers at the top of the slope look like mallows of some kind, maybe Lavatera. I like your palm tree. Looks like Trachycarpus. Very hardy and has flowers when it's taller. It also drops fronds, but not often. What you put on your bank really depends on how much time you have to stay on top of the care needed for the first year or so until any plantings get established. There have been some lovely suggestions offered already: the iceplant and the local Ceanothus. There are varieties that spread beautifully to smother. Otheres are taller and more bushy. They come in a small range of colours, mostly blues and purples and they can provide a succession of flowers over weeks. I liked the idea of the California poppies. They are so tough! And there are colours other than the standard 'orange'. You might want to plant 'pools' of them among Ceanothus to give a fairly strong visual impact. A 'Pacific' colour scheme suitable for strong sunlight. Pastels tend to get a bit lost in hard light. The iceplants can be very effective - big sheets of colour usually in 'hot' tones, although there are softer pinks available. And, for seriously tough sites - Gazania, Arctotis, Anigozanthis (kangaroo paw - which comes in a pleasant range of flower colours dark red to interesting green.) They're usually perennial. Climbers and sprawlers - Bougainvillea, Campsis, Trachelospermum (which smells delightful). Instead of climbing a trellis they can sprawl down the bank, needing only a trimming with shears to stay civil. Bougainvillea has thorns, however. As do the carpet roses and Rosa 'Nozomi'. That's a fairly steep slope so work across it rather than 'up/down' to reduce the risk of rain damage. Leave strips of grass to catch the run-off and protect your pool from mini-mudslides. At least until your plantings are spreading out. Before planting ANYTHING - check with your local garden centre to see if it's safe for newbies. Some things look so innocent when you see them as a cute little cutting in a teeny pot... and then you find they have rule-the-world tendencies. English ivy would be one. Cortaderia would be another. Many South African bulbs, such as Watsonia, can happily fill acres. So can Ornithogalum. And, if it's not too hot where you are, asparagus fern and ginger plant can take over in no time. If you should chance to like them - and don't mind some spiny-ness consider bromeliads. There are many hardy varieties that happily live outdoors, flower fairly regularly and make a good groundcover. And aren't fussy.

i am not sure how well you can see it but i have a large wire loop around the top of the lemon drop attached to the stake. they seem to be lanky and branchy, once full of leaves or peppers and they seem to want to droop a bit. that is the baccatum. pretty fast growers. get my stakes at the dollar store. @15 for $1. bamboo ones.

When growing a meadow - some weeds are acceptable. And you will have lots of weeds the first couple seasons. But if you can keep them from reproducing then the desirable stuff will eventually outcompete them, but a meadow will never be "free" of weeds. And I have a lot of grass... the prairie grasses tend to take over as time passes... but thats okay I like the grasses. I have a few small prairie plots that I maintain. They are not really large enough to be a "real" prairie. One is just a 10' x 40' patch at some rental property that I own. I grow all natives, including a rain garden and wildflower buffer on my property. And we (my brother & I) maintain a prairie planting that is about 2 acres on land at my mother's house in Wisconsin. I also do volunteer work with the local nature center to help them maintain some remnant prairies and woodland areas on public property. I do hand weed the small prairie plot and the plantings around my home. I do not hand weed the plot at my mom's or the stuff on public land. We control weeds mostly with presribed burns on the larger tracts. And my brother's job is to plant prairies to create wildlife habitat. We have many converstations sharing our experiences with managing and planting prairies.