Sammy, I have ordered so many seeds from Plants of the SW. Last fall I started adding native grasses which are easy from seed and so pretty. Most everything I am growing withstood the drought with very little trouble. The Muhly grasses are harder to get germination but are very much worth the effort. Santa Rosa Gardens sells many native grasses and has good sales each spring and fall. I ordered quite a few last fall. I also ordered a few from High Country Gardens. You can build over time and add special things. I started Desert Marigolds a few years ago and these have naturalized. Blue foliage with yellow flowers all spring, summer into December, like perfect bouquets. They would do well on your slope. My property is on a slope, but not as steep. I wish I had a slope exactly like you have, there are so many drought loving plants you could grow there without worrying about drainage. You could also add cold hardy agaves which would look great with the grasses and do very well in that situation for a touch of exotic and good texture combinations. Large rocks would look fantastic. The choices of plants is endless because you have that perfect drainage and can grow things otherwise impossible. Cold hardy agaves include: Parryi, Harvardiana, shindaggers and a couple others. Check out High Country Gardens for cold hardy ones and other drought loving plants. We have a cactus show here in OKC each spring and you can buy the agaves there and Kelly Grummons at Cold Hardy Cactus online sells them too. When I saw the photo, I just went crazy and thought "Oh wow, let me plant that!" Its perfect for the kinds of plants I love and it looks like you have it all ready for planting by clearing it off. This could be a whole lot of fun to do. The money, yep, its cheap. Many of the grasses establish well in one season and then its just low maintenance. I have run out of room here and need a bigger area just for the grasses because I wish I could do drifts. We did river rock gravel and its fine now but the first season we had some trouble with runoff and I had to go retrieve some of it in the wheel barrow. I think you would need some heavy rough edged gravel other than river rock to keep it from sliding downhill until its established. Here a some photos of the plants I have that I grew mostly from seeds I got at Plants of the Southwest. The yellow flowers are the Desert Marigolds, bitterweed and dogweed, there is a Silver King Artemsia by the wall and a Rabbit Bush, the pink ones are Flame Flowers a large Russian Sage by the street and various grasses, native "weeds" and cactus. This was shot in August in the middle of the drought.

Think msmarion, think! You're my only hope, lol. Pattico, I injected the paint talk (see my comment under the pic). Tri Chem was exactly what I was talking about, and you're right, they were very pricey. It wasn't the most exciting thing to do because it took so long to paint something, but the end results were beautiful. Wonder what happened to them too.

Ok.. Here I go. Dad left when I was 2, sister 12 brother 7. Parents were married 13 yrs. Dad cheated and got GF pg so I have a half brother that is almost 2 yrs younger than me. Dad married his GF, they were married until I was 10. Dad never got me in the beginning bc I was the baby and he thought too young for weekend visits. Mom tried to get him to take me. Never would. Started going when I was 5. Dad worked all weekend leaving us with SM. SM and older sister got along great bc SM let sister drink and smoke and go out all night while me and brother were literally locked in a bedroom for hours with only rice and biscuits for dinner. No breakfast or lunch. Dad was clueless. Mom remarried when I was 4 to my stepdad. They are still married, I am 30 now. Mom never did or said anything until brother told about the abuse we indured (neglect) for 4 yrs. She stopped letting us go. When dad remarried at 40 a 29 yr old mom became furious at the affection I showed towards new sm. She was lots of fun. Taught me to drive at 13! Responsible parent? Absolutely not. I didn't realize the loyalty my mom demanded until I was 13. I went to live with dad and sm for 2 yrs in jr high. It was awful for me. I was even more neglected since sm and bd were both cops. No one ever home. We were the party house bc I was left to run wild. Got into some trouble and my mom made me move home. All through high school I would want to go see my dad and mom would get angry and tell me things like 'your dad never helps he doesn't pay child support he cheated he left US' so I would drop it. Then I started having my own issues with dad bc SM #2 felt betrayed by me since I moved back home with mom she wouldn't speak to me. I would visit and she would lock herself in her room all weekend. So I stopped going. Then at my high school graduation dad came SM did not, my Parents got into a fight. I was crying over my bff moving away and we were hugging, dad said awwwwww isn't that so sweet in a 'mocking' tone. Mom turned around and said 'she isn't use to losing people or people leaving her, that's your job!' omg!! It was awful they started screaming and going at it. I didn't speak to my dad for 5 yrs but I never heald it against my mom. SM and dad divorced and dad met sm#3. Dd was 1. I started seeing my dad in secret bc I didn't want my mom to know. Dad owed mom $25k in child support but she had to buy his part of the house when I graduated college. So when they went to do all of that basically they wipped that clean and mom had to still pay $28k to dad... Mom was furious. She had a bad attorney and dad knew the judge since he worked for the county ... Mom has lots of baggage, lots of hate, animosity. I did not realize what my mom was doing to me by forcing me to pick her or my dad until I told her I was inviting dad to dd's bday party, a party she agreed to help pay for. She simply said 'i won't be there' which then I had to not invite dad bc I couldn't afford the party on my own and needed her help. She basically knew I needed her $ and that I would pick her so that I could have this party we had already planned to split. Basically my dad was not a good dad. Not there for me. But he is still my dad. I look just like him and so she always says don't make that face you look like your father!! That always hurt me which is part of some issues I have with my self esteem and self worth. It will hurt your dd's. They will look for a way out as young adults by trying to find a man to support them so they can move out fast. That is what I did. I could not stand the constant badgering of my dad and her stories of how he left us or how he did this or that. Granted they did not start until high school. The way I have fixed it now is I just tell my mom, he is my dad and you married him, you had kids with him, you get over it. So she slowly has gotten over it in the last two yrs but she still says things about the money (which I do agree he screwed her, he screwed us) but I don't want to relive it over and over and over again. I just want to live my life now. It took only 10 yrs from the beginning of the mess for me to figure it out and I had to set very clear boundaries with my mom. Now things are fine and honestly, now I see that my dad was a deadbeat, still is and my mom was right however I still don't want to hear it. Your situation is a bit different. But do know that she will figure it out when she is an adult. Just keep doing what you are doing. Do not cut yourself off from her because that hurts worse. She will realize wow sm wasn't like what my mom said and she will probably need therapy like I have needed but she will get it and her adulthood may start out rough but in the end, her childhood will not define her. Mine does not. I do not say 'well I had a rough childhood and no one wanted me so I will go be promiscuous or a deadbeat' I have changed my yellow brick road to better fit what I want. Now my sister... She uses her childhood as an excuse for her constant mistakes... Hopefully that won't be your sd.

Sharon, I don't know what postage would be. I got a bunch of small light weight boxes that shouldn't cost much. You could pay when the box arrives. Postage is marked and my return address is on the box. Bob, i'll see what i have left over. Address the same? How's those cactus seedlings make out I sent back in 2012? The ones I kept for myself are only 12 inches high. i thought they would be bigger. but being in the house all the time must keep them small.