Containers need more frequent watering than plants in the ground. A selection of succulents in orange and turquoise tones would look very nice with your house color and brick. Know in advance the mature size of the plants you select -- some succulents can become tree-like. If you wish, add some blue fescue for softness. Because it is a small area, you could splurge on some fancier rock, such as coral with sea shells and sea glass mixed in. Or rounded river rock can be appealing, with a few larger, angular rocks deeply set for accents. First make sure the bed is weed free. If needed, improve the soil so that drainage is sharp -- succulents don't want to sit in wet soil. If you plan to use drip irrigation, plot your drip lines. Lay down a heavy layer of plastic, cut holes and plant your succulents. Spread your rock over the plastic. Stand back and admire your work.

Oklahomarose, I tried Fescue ...once. I'm originally from Southern California, and although summers there are hot & dry, it didn't (used to be anyway) this hot! They have been in a terrible drought too. But, we would wear a long-sleeved shirt or light jacket in the mornings until ten and then don summer clothes until around 5 and then long pants and a long-sleeved shirt or light jacket again in the evening. Some nights, we even built a fire in the fireplace. My father grew Fescue out there. Too much work for me to get it going and not as tough as I need. I'm the freak around here. The feed store guy in town told me they didn't appreciate me moving here with my "Funny California ways of doing things." Oh well. I am growing St. Augustine grass on the South side of the house in part-shade with my Brown Turkey Fig. Both came from Louisiana where I lived for ten years before moving up here. I was told they would freeze here, but they are doing fine on the South side. I have to water them every day, but it is such a lovely lawn and I so enjoy those sweet figs in late summer. I love that area now. Cool and green. This past Fall, went drove to South Carolina to see the new grand baby. I cleaned out my daughter's flower beds for her and brought home all the Centipede Grass to try here. I planted it under the Weeping Willow on the North side and five clumps or seven survived the winter. I think that was pretty good since it wasn't even established yet before the cold hit. Those clumps are doing fine. Bermuda won't grow well if at all under trees, but the St. Augustine and Centipede do. I have cousins who live in Washington state, and they are ALWAYS trying to get us to move up there. They are gardeners too. I FEEL your pain and anxiety. ~Annie

Black plastic? Oh, yuck!! I thought for sure that people had learned not to use that stuff 20 years ago. It's beyond horrible. If anyone has ever gotten a good look at what it does to soil and roots underneath it, they would never even think of using it. I once saw a nice ornamental crabapple all but dead from the girdling roots caused by that awful stuff. I've also seen the soil go sour from using it, and turn into a nasty smelly mess. Brrr-r-r-r-r-r-r. What I'm using at the moment is the pro-grade DeWitt product, but it didn't do the job and they replaced it with a roll of engineering-grade instead. Since I bought a huge roll of it (3,000 sq ft) and it failed, it was worth calling the company to see if they'd make good on the warranty. They finally did. I had tried just about all the other landscape fabrics and had near zero success with them, so I decided to go with a top-of-the-line commercial product. If this new one doesn't work, I'm out of luck. In nearly all cases where I've used that, I'm topping it with pea gravel. Now of course I need to take up all the bad areas and replace it with the new stuff, which means moving all that gravel in order to do it. Sigh. I did discover that when I top it with either bark or pecan shell, the weeds are thrilled with it. It doesn't slow them down a bit. I'm going to have to pull every bit of it out and do all of that over again also. In the veggie garden I use thick layers of newspaper and grass clippings or chopped up hay bedding over the top of it, so it can be turned under later on. If I didn't want to continue to improve the soil where I'm growing produce, I could use a more permanent fabric, but the newspaper (or paper feed sacks) works pretty well when they are topped by several inches of actual mulch. I just wet them all down thoroughly when I put them in place and then pile the mulch over the top. I've never tried cardboard for that, although I've heard that some people do it. Speaking of the landscape fabrics in general, meaning the ones you can find at Lowe's and places like that, I think they're a waste of time and money, and I speak from experience. I noticed that the local nursery at Shawnee Feed is now carrying little rolls of the DeWitt brand, but I seriously doubt that it's the heavy industrial grade stuff that I have. If I have to look on the plus side of needing to do all that work again, as least it will give me an opportunity to situate the new plants where I want them and lay out the drip line properly, to suit the needs of the individual plants. It was an afterthought when my grandson put it in for me, and it was never really finished or done right if I'm going to be changing plant materials. And speaking of that, has anyone else noticed how hard it is to find a good supply of drip system stuff in OK. Is it just me? Am I not looking in the right places? I can't find the shrub bubblers that I want, or the micro spinners, or the spikes that are used in nursery pots, or any of that stuff. Anyone have a suggestion about where to find a good supplier? Pat

Generally the best way to approach planting to suit your climate is to select plants that grow in a similar climate to your own. If you like Aussie natives fine - go with ones that are native to your own area or similar places in Aus. There are lots of plants from the middle east, South Africa, the Americas, southern Europe and Asia that have grown for thousands of years in climates similar to our own. Good texts such as the Roger Phillips & Martyn Rix series, or the pocket botanica books, are readily available in bookstores and libraries, and give ample cultural notes. When you plan out a garden it is a good idea to sit down with paper and pen and make a list of what you like out of what will grow in your conditions. It is time well spent. Another great text is one written by Kevin Walsh "Water saving gardening in Australia" with lists of moderately and very drought tolerent plants. Not too many cactuses in his lists :-) BTW - I think iceberg roses, lavender, gaura and mondo grass are fairly drought tolerent (tongue in cheek)