You know, my chard did pretty well in a simlar spot and survived last summer. I need a bigger spot as I only have a few chard plants right now, so I'll put some chard there. Not many greens will grow here in the heat, although we get almost sick of salads in the winter! Opal, good to know on the purple basil, will still be worth it, along with some cinnamon and Thai, if just for the flowers. I like the lettuce leaf and genovese for most recipes. I do need a thyme spot, love thyme, as well as marjoram and oregano. Have all the Rosemary we can use from a well established plant already. I could probably start another parsley patch, too, my other patch survived last summer with some shade and reseeded itself. I do use a lot of flat leaf parsley. I wonder if I can extend my green bean season into the summer with this spot, we have the shortest green bean season in Arizona, I can't seem to figure out how to do beans here.

Would you consider a once blooming species rose? I'm becoming enamored with the early yellow bloomers such as Canary Bird, Father's Hugo's rose and Manchu Rose. I understand they're shade tolerant. Here's a link to Canary Bird. Here is a link that might be useful: canary bird

Hi, gardenweed. Thanks for your suggestions. Turtlehead sounds like a good possibility. I see that it likes moist soil, but do you think it could handle the drier summertime conditions that I have in that spot? I'll look into the possibility of irises too. I can get those at local nurseries, whereas it would be more difficult to get my hands on the C. obliqua seed. River_crossroads, thanks for the info about salvia. I was already considering adding Salvia patens âÂÂBlue Angelâ (Gentian Sage) or Salvia farinacea âÂÂVictoria Blueâ to my garden in a different spot, but I hadn't considered it for this problem area. Just yesterday I was looking at a blog that lists flowers that are native to the province of Buenos Aires, and I saw Salvia guaranitica, which I find really attractive. I don't have a seed/plant source for that one though. I live in a small city on the coast, and the choices available at nurseries here are quite limited. Plus, shopping online for plants and seeds isn't really an option here like it is in the US. I'm going to check in with Rolando though and see if he has any advice for me. His site is great. Thank you for the tip!

The two that come to mind are Vinca (spreads fast) and Epimedium-Barrenwort. First year it needs some moisture, then let it go. It can stand drought, gets small flowers and a pretty color in autumn. Jen