I don't know about the strip by blacktop, that is challenging to find something that will take the heat and the soggy spring. Lattice work looks very nice to hide the underside of a deck and this opens up the options of what, if anything, to plant. Annual vines like morning glories are cheap to sow seed and let them weave throughout the lattice work. Morning glories can also be mostly neglected. At most a little water during a drought, no fertilizer needed and the soil doesn't need to be high quality.

I have my fingers crossed the websites help you. Someone posted a question to the Texas forum about what tall, narrow evergreens might survive the heat, but I don't think anyone ever figured out a plant small enough for the space described. I think the poster was yearning after the smallish junipers that go next to front doors in magazines... in cooler climates. If memory serves, ligustrum and cherry laurel can be made into topiary, too. Older cultivars of ligustrum can be invasive via seeds, so some people hate it. By the gulf coast, it gets mildewy. On clay in the Dallas area, it seems to be very hardy. It might get too big for your deck, even in pots, though. Ditto with cherry laurel. Your containers should be large enough, definitely. The Container gardening forum has people who know about drip irrigation in containers. Conventional watering in containers is supposed to be done until water runs out the bottom of the containers, and then you let the dirt dry out according to the needs of the plant. I'm not sure how that translates into drip irrigation watering. You can't forget the fertilizer though (like I just did -again-). Hopefully you got the following message directly to your email address, but I'm not sure I've figured how to do that correctly, so here is a resend: The board won't let me post again so soon. Thought of this after the first post. I should have included chinese garlic chives, sweet potatoes, native honeysuckle, iris, day lilies, cannas, rosemary, jujube, and sweet bay. Laurus nobilis, not California Bay. The Herb forum and the Container Gardening forum might be helpful, too. You -don't- want japanese honeysuckle. The yaupons, sweet bay, and rosemary could lend themselves to topiary, similar to your poor, lamented spiral junipers and the ball gardenias. In our area, don't gardenias need morning sun, afternoon shade or light shade all day? They are an acid soil loving plant, so I've never grown them. We have a south facing, full sun back yard, with poorly draining clay full of nutgrass and bermuda .grass. I've been gardening these last years in big yard buckets that hold about 20 gallons of potting soil. Just wait until the nutgrass is gone, then I may make some raised beds! The yard is fenced, so is not as windy as your deck. The containers successfully hold sweet bay, fig, rosemary, jujube, day lilies, chinese chives, yaupon, iris, and cannas in full sun throughout the year. A fig might get beat to smithereens in your location, might not. The containers successfully hold onions, french sorrel, violets, salad burnet, swiss chard, potatoes, sweet potatoes in full to mostly full sun throughout the year or throughout their growing season. I did haul the tubs of plants into the living room during the nasty cold snaps this past winter, otherwise I don't think I've ever done anything special about them during the winter. Hope this helps.

Well, thanks to you folks at the ETN Plant Swap, this side of my house has an official theme! It's going to be a Tropical Garden! The dimensions of the garden are 14' x 15'. It gets sun from 9am to 5pm nearest the deck, and 10am to 6pm at the east edge. I've graded the area to be as close to level and flat as possible. We just tilled 5 inches of decomposed leaves into this bed. Actually, the leaves were so deep we didn't bring up a lot of clay... so it's mostly just finely mulched leaves, sticks and coffee grounds and an occasional hunk of clay at present. I stomped all over it thoroughly to try to compress it, but it's still a little spongy when walked on. Is this an acceptable medium for planting these plants, or should I be adding something? Here's what I have to put in it: Varigated Hibiscus (need to dig up?) Versi-peach Brugmansia (need to dig up?) White Brugmansia (need to dig up?) Clerodendrum thomsoniae (Bleeding Heart Vine) Cestrum nocturnum (Night Blooming Jessamine) Cannas in many colors and foliage colors! Buddleja (butterfly bush) Hibiscus syriacus (Rose of Sharon) Crocosmia Touch-me-not Grasses Tomatoes Colocasia esculenta (Taro root) Angel-wing begonia (B. x superba) Tamarindus indica (Tamarind) seedling (may not live, but if it does it will be a tree) Dracaena fragrans (Corn plant) cutting (need to dig up) Ponytail palm Yucca Daylilies Irises Kniphofia (Red hot pokers) Gladiolus Calladiums (need to dig up?) Castor bean Red honeysuckle I'm also getting: Musa basjoo sapling (Hardy banana) Now my question is, design! I'm not sure of the best way to lay all this out. Do Bananas give much shade? How tall should I expect it to get? If it does provide shade, perhaps it would be good to place near the deck so the deck gets some shade in the hot part of the day? A friend suggested getting a yellow locust for next to the deck, and planting the banana elsewhere. I'm interested in your opinions on this. I'd like some privacy from the neighbors to the east. What to plant on that border that won't get too tall and block the sun for the other plants? I'm thinking 12 feet maximum. Are Buddlejas and Altheas good for this? I'd like a nice relaxing area in the middle of the bed, where I can do a little sunbathing without feeling like people can see me. I have lots of cobbles of all sizes, and quite a lot of marble pieces. Would either of these be useful here? Another thing that would be helpful to know in planting this is heights and space requirements. It's a long list so I'm going to start researching it, but it would be helpful if you know offhand what heights, widths, spacing, and other requirements or restrictions I should know about - I'm so new to tropicals!

i just spoke with a local pittsburgh paint representative about their sun-proof exterior stains.. http://www.pittsburghpaints.com/for_homeowners/stain_projects/index.htm