Hi Gardeners- thanks for the feedback! Bahia- a a HUGE thanks for your plant suggestions. I will put out my Western Garden book and look them up! I know it probably sounds weird to not want to put the plants in the ground, and putting gravel/decomposed granite down first. My reasoning is that I want to keep as much air and light flowing around there as possible: it's dark and damp now and our main living area inside the house looks back there. I compare it sometimes to being in the bottom of a well as I look out from our kitchen. I have been thinking about lightening the walls up w/ tinted whitewash -and not putting (many) in trailing-over-the-wall plants- to get more reflective light bouncing around. The east side of our property line abutts the wall of our neighbor's house, which until recently was covered with an enormous creeping fig which made a pretty green screen. I thought it was lovely and didn't want to take it down, but we had to since it was beginning to wreck their wall. We have since primed the wall white and we are astonished at how much brighter the space is back there (not to mention our house.) Anyway, I'm thinking about carrying that through the rest of the yard- no/minimal green plants on the walls and instead focus people's eyes on the hardscape and interesting containers. It will be a harder/harsher design for sure than, say, a cottage garden, but I'm thinking it can be interesting anyway. Also, about 70% of our yard is that terrace; I want to integrate some seating/human circulation up there. gottagarden- I only *WISH* SF was hot! That was my expectation when I moved out here from the midwest 15 years ago. :) Alas, we only get a couple of hot days every year. And we have a watering system already in place to help w/ the watering... there's still feeding/pruning/repotting to deal w/ but that can be done more infrequently. (Another reason I'm into fewer flowers; in another garden I learned all about how much work deadheading can become.)

Surely that cost doesn't include permit and engineer's stamp, which the 'garden center' should have told you may be required for a structure that high under that much pressure holding back that much weight, esp if it is above your house. Throughout the 9000 years since agrarian societies began, hillsides have been terraced and cut-filled to grow crops, as water running straight downhill is suboptimal at best and after the first thunderstorm throughout history every time folks became unhappy. So. Landscape timbers (4x4x8ft) hereabouts are ~US$1.00/ft so for two tiers at 3' each that is ((35*9)*2) [runs] + ((12*2)*6) [posts] = (630) + (144) = $774 just for timbers, then you'll need to drain which is ~150 for gravel & pipe and fabric and concrete should be ~75 and hardware should be ~200 so that's roughly 774+150+75+200 = $1200 just in 2 minutes of thinking about it. You'll need a path between the two so that's ~75 for gravel and 30 for fabric so you're at 1300+ just for that material, and tax at 7.5% is another ~100 so you're at 1400+. Figure 10% contingency for delivery and drill bit breaking and augur and such, and that's a cheap wall that'll hopefully last 10 years if you take your time and do it right and there's a couple dry years in there and slow melting a couple years. [/old landscaper] Dan

Step 1 is to divide the area from the lawn, you may put pavers from place like Home Depot or just dig down & put in a strip that will divide ground cover from lawn. Chances are the ground cover will grow both up & down. Your lawn seed will also run down into bottom part. My lawn in back grows very deep because we went to Tenn. & brought some home on tent we had, I was cleaning it after the trip & next thing I knew had lot of miserable very deep grass to deal with so you need to dig down & see where roots end. Home Depot sells a roll of brown or black edger that is about 8-10 in wide & maybe 20 ft long or more. You would pretty much bury it except for top edge sticking up maybe 1-2 in. It will be work at 1st but once ground cover fills in shouldn't be too bad. If you want less chance of the 2 mixing you could then add a small wall of stone on top of the barrier couple of stones high,not really stone wall just look like it. back of these pavers is a little narrower than front so you can curve it a little across the yard. Lay a garden hose out to see where it looks right to dig out for whatever you are going to do. This is not a 1 weekend job unless you have lots of help & money. Drove down the street today in rain & saw the mess my neighbor has. Yard all dug out, sprinkler pipe all over & trenches & none of it laid(wonder if it will be stolen by morning) & at least $500 of sod very carelessly thrown on driveway. 1 hot day & he's got a dried out mess. If you want sprinklers that comes before anything else. If you just seed the top of yard & water the seed will end up mostly where you want the ground cover & you just wasted your money. That is why you need to divide it 1st. Then dig out 1 side at a time & have tarp handy as good heavy rain will take out all your top soil. When you get ground cover keep it in fairly shady area & water if they dry out at all. Ground you put the new plants in needs to be moist but not soaked to about 1 ft down. Look at neighborhood & see what ground cover you like. Does it freeze there? How tall do you want it? Green, plum colored or lt. green. Go to library & get landscaping book or 2. Go to nursery & check out what they have in your area. Don't just throw your money on the ground like my neighbors did today! Ok,you can do this yourself, just take a couple of days to find out what you like. I love your house. I really think the front door needs a pretty color on it to make it inviting. You have a lot to work with & you can really have a lovely place there. My 1st thought was make a cottage type garden up to steps & then lawn up to house. For that I would just do the barrier & low wall(not cemented)put the seed in lawn part & wait for spring, then dig out & put in what you carefully chose over the winter that won't be too much work & trimming. There are no perfect ground covers!! Some better than others & work better in Georgia than Ca. For cottage garden in spring several packages of perennial seeds in that lower part. They require some cleaning out just like your ground cover will at times. Gardening is a tossup but it is healthy work & most people enjoy having a nice yard & you do get to see results of your labors. Good luck!

One of the henbits; Lamium purpureum or L. amplexicaule. Pretty purple blooms but once you see the purple color you are sure to see it again next year. These are winter annuals that need to be controlled first in the fall and then again in the late winter (chemically, which you can't). Looks like some control has already been applied by maybe extreme winter cold or severe drought??? (scorch on leaves) but not sure. Doesn't seem to do well competing with healthy turf, so overseeding in fall and thickening the turf may be a help. hortster