I'm in a similar situation. My(container)garden area is on the west side of the apartment building. I do get a few more hours than you of sun. Last year I grew tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, herbs and some flowers. The sun hits the front edge of the yard about 10:30am, and finally reaches the building about 12:30 - 1:00pm. But I had tomatoes up against the building that did pretty well. How much room do you have? I would definitely try summer squash, peppers and tomatoes. You may not have many hours of full sun, but you have the heat going for you...you're in a warmer zone than I am. Heck, I think you could try almost anything...how else are you going to know? The photo below was taken in late July at about 6pm, so it was starting to shade over. HTH

Just lovely, Kippy. Your photography, along with the flowers themselves, is beautiful. I have a history of failure with narcissus, probably owing to overly heavy soil. One of the few that has lasted for me is one of the old Triandrus hybrids, I forget its name...'Tresamble'? Down in town the other day I saw in a garden a line of thickly clustered white tazzettas just beginning to open. What an inspiring sight. I made a mental note, assisted by a memory from last winter of tazzettas growing wild along the highway: evidently they can stick it out here. I can tell another round of experimentation is about to begin. Melissa

Thank you Deb. I had to take all my plants of the window sills. Wind came in to much. Even though the windows are new. But then I knew that this is one disadventage of metal framed windows. I just hope nobody has to go out there in this bad weather. Bob and others are probably out in the yard enjoying the sunshine lol Have you all noticed who is here? rofl The ones with bad weather roflmao Just kiddin. Lucy

G.M., I think any ornamental sweet potato would adequately shade the clematis roots. However, last year I had both Blackie and Margarita (and some others as well) in containers (couldn't plant them in the yard-turned-pond) and they climbed both a trellis and a chain link fence. They did look pretty, but might try to climb and compete with your clematis. On the other hand, maybe they'd look good climbing together. The Sweet Autumn Clematis is the only really late blooming clematis I know of, generally blooming for me from late August through early September...maybe about 3 or 4 weeks of bloom. The others are spring to summer bloomers as Caroline mentioned above. I did notice our forecast has changed again and I like the new one more than the old one (if it is accurate!). I gues I'll just continue to watch the weather and do the should I plant/shouldn't I plant argument with myself for the next few days. The 22 tomato plants that I put in the ground yesterday DO look deliriously happy. I guess they are ready to spread their roots and grow. The wind has been beating the tar out of them all week, so I have had to keep a close eye on them to make sure that they didn't windburn. You can add any organic material to your beds to improve drainage and revitalize them. I like to add a little compost, a little composted cow manure, and some pine bark fines (the most finely shredded bark mulch you can fine, whether pine or not, will work). At Lowe's they usually have bagged mushroom compost, which is great, and I prefer the Black Kow (Cow?) manure they sell in bright yellow and black bags. It is 100% manure, whereas the law only requires bagged manure to contain 10% (!) manure, so many other products have a minimal amount of manure and lots of cheap, useless filler. I like pine bark fines as they break down a little more slowly and help feed the soil longer. (You want to avoid working big chunky mulch into the soil as it ties up nitrogen as it breaks down.) If you can't find finely shredded pine, you also can use finely shredded hardwood. I've even used finely shredded cedar and it didn't seem to have any adverse effect. I am watching Megan's forecast right now and it sounds like a cloudy, dreary weekend....but at least we don't look like we're going to freeze. Today's high (63) is lower than it was when I woke up yesterday morning (68). I'm off to get some mulch today for the beds that are already planted. I don't like to mulch them too heavily until the soil warms up to 70, but I do need to mulch them lightly today or I will be pulling weeds soon. And, by the way, I am too sore to do much in the garden today too. I guess you and I need to do a pre-season gardening workout to prepare us for the planting season. Caroline, I hope the moonflower seeds sprout for you. I love, love, love the flowers and they are worth the wait! (Not only are they slow to germinate, but they also are sort of late to bloom....but worth it!) I read an article many years ago in Southern Living about a groom who built a sort of open-air chapel on family land for his wedding. (It looked sort of like the framing of a building. So, I guess it really was a huge open-air trellis built to be covered with vines. The wedding was held "underneath" the trellis.) Then, he planted it with moonflowers. I think he planted some a year before so he could time when they would open. THEN, for their August wedding they timed the start of the ceremony so the flowers would oh-so-dramatically open just moments before the bride made her trip down the aisle. Can you imagine how perfectly lovely it must have been? (I hope they stayed married, 'cause a man like that sounds like a keeper!) Dawn