Virtuosity, I well remember your virtuosity with your gardening and pergola building, and I am sorry to hear about your knee. I am not sure you need step by step instructions so much as general guidelines to figure out yourself how to reduce maintenance. For me, it is not as simple as perennials vs. shrubs. Main sources of work in your yard are probably weeding and edging. or? maybe also in fall or spring, there is removing dead foliage, fall raking, and lawn mowing of course. What are the tasks you find hardest? Zero in on those and figure out how to reduce them. For example, if weed growth is a problem, then you need plants that cover the ground effectively. Perennials can do that - hostas, peonies, and many others. This way, you would need to weed once in spring, perhaps, and once the ground is shaded you won't have too much more weed sprouting. Mulching heavily will also help to reduce weed sprouting. So I would not be looking at type of plant, in short, so much as at type of work, and ways to reduce that. If you want to keep the garden, you can also hire garden services and/or your children as soon as they are old enough: at 25 cents per buttercup (with roots), they would learn fast :-) At some point perennials often do have to be dug up and divided/reduced in mass, and that is the kind of thing you could hire out - and they are easier to dig up than shrubs! If you are going to post photos, a photo of the current situation won't hurt. Karin L

I'd suggest sorting out what will do well in the winter shade right against the building first. Kangaroo Paws will grow just fine there, but really bloom best with full sun. Most of the Kniphofia/Poker Plant cultivars will also bloom best with full sun. You also have an Angel's Trumpet/Brugmansia at the left side of the unit, and this can get quite big over time, but can easily be trained to be a multi-trunk tree, and will be bloom well in these light conditions. The cultivar 'Charles Grimaldi' is my personal favorite, and has a warm orange shade of bloom. I'd also suggest that some really big ceramic pots at the walls flanking the steps, with a colorful foliage plant such as Phormium 'Yellow Wave' or 'Cream Delight' could give you year round color, as well as foliage texture. Alternatively, you could also use specimens of Strelitzia reginae or Euphorbia cotinifolia in pots, perhaps with trailing Euphorbia myrsinites, or succulents such as the lavender tinged Graptoveria 'Fred Ives' or Echeveria imbricata. If you wanted another larger growing shrub with nearly year round bloom that could be kept relatively narrow, the Princess Flower/Tibouchina urvilleana does really well in southern California, but does need regular watering to bloom well. The Mexican Lobelia is also nearly year round blooming and grows well in shade and with little water, and can be sheared into a hedge and treated like boxwood. You might also consider using a bold foliage plant like Giant Walking Iris/Neomarica caerulea, having a similar form to a Phormium, but with waves of deep purple blue flowers on 5 foot tall stems all summer into fall. Another really cool shrub with purplish tinged foliage and blue flowers in late winter/spring is the uncommon Ageratum corymbosa, which also does well in light shade. Kalanchoe carnea modoc is another sculptural succulent that is winter blooming, takes shade, and would do well at the front of your building. With the formality of the building facade, I would suggest that treating it as a formal symmetrical planting and massing foliage plants with some color would give it a more integrated look in the front. You might also consider Reed Stem Orchids, Epidendrons, for a narrow yet tall and everblooming airy plant. Some narrow growing palms such as Chamaedorea tepelejote or C. plumosa could also look cool in front of the building, and will do well in shade, without getting too big. If you want to do the Gingers, they typically do want more regular summer water to do well, but things like H. greenei, H. gardnerianum, Alpinia zerumbet variegata could combine well with the Brugmansia and Tibouchina water wise. I wouldn't recommend planting the Horsetail/Equisetum unless it is contained at the roots, as this is a rampant spreader and will choke other plants out over time. You could plant the similar appearing South African restio, Elegia capensis for a similar look, which is very lacey and ferny foliage. Asparagus retrofractus is another tall ferny/lacey looking plant that would like these conditions. Good luck with the project, and post some photos of what you decide to do!

Energy, My response was specific to OP's situation. She'd described her location as SF Bay area and great in summer. I assumed that meant she was not "inland", and if so, most people in the immediate Bay Area don't have AC. I don't have AC, I cool my house by opening the windows in the evening, we have cool nights on all but a few very hot days. Look at today's forecast- SF is 70, Berkeley is 70, inland Walnut Creek, 15 miles from Berkeley, is 86, very inland Sacramento is 97 but still dry heat). People who live inland have AC and just bite the bullet with cost. I'm sure there are many heat pumps in use in rural or remote areas with no natural gas, with people who don't want to use propane or wood stoves. But I know people all over a broad area, and no one I know has one.

I really hope my stupidness didn't break this machine. If it did, they must be more fragile that I thought. I don't know about your duet but I don't think I could harm mine... it puts up with A LOT! With 4 kids, 3 huge dogs and having a home like Grand Central Station, our Duet has washed many things, including things it probably shouldn't have, without any trouble. I always throw a couple of towels in when I do sheets-- to me is seems like it helps them NOT to get so tangled. My kids have washed heavy ATV riding clothes with tons of mud on them and have the caused the washer to take forever to balance itself but after it does, there doesn't seem to ever be any problem. So quit kicking yourself in the behind!! :) When we had a bunch of BBs go through our washer (dang teenagers!) my husband was able to use the service manual to repair it himself. He says it is the easiest appliance he has ever worked on... there isn't much to them. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Service Manuals