As you consider plants, do your research. Look for plants that are drought tolerant (less watering), and slow growing (less pruning). These characteristics can make a big difference. However, you need to realize that there are not any NO maintenance plants. Trees are very low maintenance in general. They need lots of space, obviously, but if chosen well, they give more bang for the buck than any other plant. Liriodendron (tulip poplar): great shade tree, very fast grower to maturity. Attractive year round. Drought tolerant. Minuses: the roots grow shallowly, so it can be somewhat difficult to grow other things under them, like ground covers, for example. Still, I think they're one of the best. Oaks: Some are very fast growers like Pin Oaks. Some are distressingly slow, like White Oaks. Crepe Myrtles: Disease resistant (except mildew and that is easily prevented by choosing the right varieties). I have never known them to be attacked by insects. When pruned well (PLEASE! prune well! :) they are one of the best for the south. They have an extremely long bloom time, and are VERY drought tolerant. Their winter form (when pruned well) is as beautiful, if not more beautiful than their summer form. minuses: BUT, they do require a fair amount of pruning to keep suckers cut off at the base, and to train them into a graceful shape, especially their first 2 to four years of life. Vitex agnus: beautiful, blue blooms, lovely foliage. They need a fair amount of pruning, though less so if you grow them as large shrubs instead of in tree form. Shrubs are, as louisianagal said, far lower maintenance than perennials, but again, they are not No maintenance. Raphiolepis indica (Indian Hawthorn): A great evergreen shrub. When given adequate space, (They easily get five to six feet wide. Give it to them) They are very close to no maintenance. They are neat and tidy all year long. Mine only need a light shearing once a year. Even less in dry years. The spring bloom is nice, but short lived. These plants make great bones in the garden. Encore azaleas: other than deadheading and a yearly feeding, these are very easy and reliable. They take more sun than the traditional azaleas, and their late summer to fall bloom is long and invaluable. I second the motion for Nandinas. They are one of the most under appreciated shrubs, in my opinion. They look wonderful in every season: beautiful lacy textured evergreen foliage, white spring blooms, drop dead gorgeous fall and winter color, and then there's the gorgeous clusters of red berries in winter. What more could you ask? On top of that they are drought tolerant, disease and pest resistant, and grow in full sun to full shade. Their one flaw? Most of them sucker. Some more than others, the old fashioned, large ones being the worst. I like Firepower too (no berries). I also love Harbour Dwarf because it makes berries. Compacta is a lovely larger form. Hydrangeas are fabulous for shade in the south. Endless Summer is particularly wonderful. I have Blushing Bride too, but it is being temperamental about blooming, so the jury is still out for me. I just purchased Twist and Shout. We'll see if it lives up to the ES name. I am also growing White Out for the first time this year. The snow white blooms are amazingly beautiful. I can tell you that it scorches if it gets more than a few hours of morning sun. Too soon to say for sure, but so far, it's a winner. Other than deadheading and watering, hydrangeas that are planted in the right location are virtually maintenance free. Korean Boxwood. This is a great plant that hardly anyone uses. I don't understand why. It is slower growing in the beginning, but that is a real advantage after the first three years or so, as it only needs shearing once a year. It will also grow in full sun to nearly full shade. Other really good ones: Hollies: there are so many good ones! Viburnums: look beyond snowball bushes. They are great shrubs. Arborvitaes (Thuja): the one called Emerald is excellent. Tall, skinny spires are in short supply here in the south. This is a great one. Camellias, both japonicas and sasanquas, Roses (all these are self cleaning, a very important attribute) Knockout Roses, Oh So Easy Paprika Rose, Nearly Wild Rose (very thorny), Cassie Rose, Carefree sunshine. All roses do best with a light pruning after each flush of blooms. Typically, I prune 3 times: in February, late May, and Mid July to early August. None of these are ever sprayed at my house. They all bloom from early spring to hard frost. Perennials require a fair amount of work, but some less than others. The trick is to find plants with good looking foliage, a good bloom time (anything more than a month is great), a moderate speed of spreading, and that are disease and pest resistant. REad in the forums. You can find all kinds of lists. Just be sure to pay best attention to the lists that are generated by people in your zone. Perennials, more than any other, vary wildly in their performance from one zone to another. Keep in mind that although the Pacific Northwest has the same winter hardiness zones as the Southeast, summer performance is dramatically different. Note: Daylilies are one of the most dependable, and longest blooming perennials for the south. They are also the ones that require the greatest amount of maintenance to grow them well. Three feedings a year, division every 3 or 4 years at least, daily deadheading and deadscaping during bloom season, and deadleafing after bloom time. I grow them. I love them. I limit how many, so I can care for them. I highly recommend that you get a copy of The Southern LIving Gardening Book and read it carefully. Don't buy anything that this book doesn't say will grow in your zone. It has detailed info on nearly any tree, shrub, perennial, annual, fruit or vegetable that you can think of. If it's not listed, don't even bother. It very probably won't grow anywhere in the south. And speaking of books....I'm done! (Can you tell that I love plant passionately? :)

I am with Dottie that you would do well to plant next fall (mid-September to late October in your zone) to allow root growth but have less stress on the plants due to shorter, cooler days. Regardless of what you plant, it will need regular water until the ground freezes. This season you can evaluate the site and plan so that you are ready come fall. I also agree with Dottie about voles - you could ask on the perennial forum or on the shrub forum (whatever type of plant you end up with) for suggestions that seem less attractive to voles. Most types of deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara) are hardy to zone 7, so not an option for you, though there are some types rated for colder temperatures such as 'Kashmir', 'Shalimar' and 'Polar Winter'. I'd check around at local garden centers, botanical gardens, and arboretums to see if anyone has local information as to how they do before planting them. It's tough having a borderline hardy tree that does well for several years and then is half-killed during a particularly cold winter. My inclination would be to plant native plants or ones that you are sure don't have escapist tendencies since you are on the edge woodlands, and plants such as ivy or vinca can grow into the woods, disrupting the native plants. You may find that you have already existing woodland spring wildflowers when you go into the woods in the spring. (Be aware that spring is the worst time for ticks, though they around all of the warm season, so get in the habit of doing a careful check of clothes whenever you have been out in the yard, and of your entire body at least once a day if you have been outside at all. It takes a few minutes, but I include it in my bedtime routine and haven't had an embedded tick yet, though I find them on my skin and clothes often.) Light levels: If you plant the slope with typical meadow wildflowers, you may have mixed results, depending on the amount of sun you have. Something like Rudbeckia is really a sun flower, and so may not do particularly well there. I would start taking photos at 8:00, 10, noon, 2, and 4:00. Do this at the spring solstice (mid-March, 1st day of spring), and about once a month up until the summer solstice (mid-June, 1st day of summer.) This will give you a good idea of how much sun you actually get there. If you want to try Rudbeckia, I'd go ahead and do that this spring since it will establish better with less established grass. By planting time, you may have a pretty good idea of how much sun the area gets. Water and nutrients: You might want to ID the trees along the top of the slope; depending on what you have, they may send out more or fewer shallow roots into the slope area to compete with whatever you plant. I say this because they look to me like red maples, which have fast-growing shallow roots and will compete for water and nutrients with whatever you plant. So the sooner you plant, the sooner what you plant gets established enough to be able to compete with the red maples. If you have oaks, they won't be an issue since their roots are deeper. Watch the slope and see how water levels fluctuate over the year. If it is a recently cut bank, the soil may actually be subsoil and benefit from adding organic matter to the surface, or there may be springs that will cause problems if not addressed. I'd also get a soil test done (Cornell U does them among other places) to see what will grow well in your soil. For instance, that might be a lovely place for some rhododendrons, but only if you have acid soil. Mowing: If you end up deciding to keep this meadow, it will need mowing 2-4 times a year with a brush mower to keep out woody plants. In my area those woodies include sweet fern, red maple, staghorn, sumac, white pine, black cherry, all of which like open areas for their seedlings. Seeds will blow in or be brought in by animals, and some of them will start growing, often including non-native invasives such as buckthorn, bittersweet, barberry, burning bush, and Japanese honeysuckle. In the northeast and Great Lakes area, unmowed areas will always turn into forest eventually, so you want to mow to prevent the process from getting started. In our field we time mowings to allow the ground-nesting birds' chicks to hatch undisturbed (turkeys are our most frequent ground nesters), and to allow certain plants to bloom, but for a chunk of time it is just mowed field. You can time one of your mowings for early fall just before the leaves change color, which will allow flower seeds to ripen but prevent baby trees from storing nutrients. Your landscaper may have access to a brush mower to do this for you. Regardless, the part you keep for sledding will need either regular mowed grass or the periodic Consider a mixed shrub border for the less steep part of the slope. I have one that is heavily mulched or groundcovers between plants and edged to keep out grass, and I only spend a few hours a year (perhaps an hour a month) weeding it, and it's probably about 15'x70'. It provides blooms, varied summer foliage, winter evergreens and berries, and colorful fall foliage for very little maintenance work. In the late fall or early spring I use hedge clippers to whack off the perennials and clematis to ground level. This one is full sun, but I have others in less than half day sun with a mix of shrubs and a few perennials, also edged and heavily mulched. This one is about 5 years old. Fall Spring early Winter So you have lots of options, but specific plant recommendations depend on your goals, your soil, and your sun levels.

Virgil, do you know about the late 19th century/early 20th century buildings that were artists' studios? Some of the best apartments in the city have been those former studios which, of course, faced north with double-height windows. The original artists' apartments were in the back of the buildings facing south, but the buildings have been long since been converted so that many of the living rooms are double-height with the enormous windows. Some of the nicest buildings are The Gainsborough on Central Park South which overlooks the park; The Hotel des Arts and several others on West 67th Street*, officially the West 67th Street Artists’ Colony History District, and one of the prettiest streets in the city; and the Studio Building on West 77th off Central Park West, which overlooks the Museum of Natural History. * This is a NY Times article by the late great architectural historian Christopher Gray, who writes, "In 1901 they chose West 67th Street, off Central Park West, a ragged block of stables, a planing mill, a warehouse and vacant lots. But it was next to Central Park and it backed up onto the rowhouses of West 68th Street, where restrictions effectively prohibited tall buildings. Assurance of light and proximity to an established residential district and Central Park made it a smart real-estate move."

The below is an archived compilation of posts I have put together from various different places, relating to gardeners trying to grow hardy varieties of citrus in the Pacific Northwest region. I'm hoping putting it here will help save it for posterity. The following are posts recovered from the permies forum: nancy sutton Location: Federal Way, WA - Western Washington "Well, just for giggles, I've got yuzu growing happily in a spot outdoors, sorta sheltered from the northerly wind, here in our 7-8 zone, gets down to 25F on short occasions. No fruit yet... but it's only been ..? 2 or 3 years?" https://permies.com/t/16891/permaculture-projects/lemon-trees-montana Ben Zumeta (March 2018 ?) My best friend from childhood's parents have a lemon tree in their yard in NE Seattle. It's at least 15yrs old and seems quite productive and healthy. He is a lifelong orchardist and vintner though and may have used old farmer magic. ...in terms of the happy lemon in Seattle, beyond good ol farmer magic I would attribute its success to being about 2/3 of the way up a SE facing hill with a house above it to the NW. The bottom of the hill has a grocery store parking lot and large arterial covered in black top, and this undoubtedly radiates heat. It also probably likes the boner view of Mt. Rainier. Marco Downs I heard recently that Dave Boehnlein got a Yuzu harvest from a tree he planted in a parking strip in Seattle, no special earth/stone works, but lots of feeding and watering. I haven't seen many posts from him on this forum lately but I know he's pretty approchable. From what I've seen, yuzu and other (semi)hardy citrus can grow leaves just fine, which can be wonderful for cooking, but getting the fruit to ripen can be tricky. https://permies.com/t/82882/Yuzu-Western-Washington Frank Cordeiro "My Yuzu limes have survived three days of 10 degree weather with just some minor stem damage. It is producing lots of good fruit with no freeze damage the last two years. I use my trifoliate orange to make a household cleaning solution by soaking cut up and squeezed oranges in white vinegar. I am in Southern Oregon. Most years we hit 10 degrees in winter but sometimes a bit lower... " Matt Hedlund February 2018 "I too live in Seattle and have a cold hardy citrus collection of my own. In the ground i have: Indio Mandarinquat Owari Satsuma Kuno Wase Satsuma Nagami Kumquat Fukushu Kumquat Marumi Kumquat Calamondin Chinotto Sour Orange Bloomsweet Grapefruit (kinkoji) Yuzu & Poncirus trifoliata To date, these have all seen 18 degrees unprotected with no damage across the last 3 winters." https://permies.com/t/74712/Hybridizing-cold-hardy-citrus-grow dawn shears Location: Gold Beach, Oregon (south coast, zone 9b) "I was super tickled to find meyer lemon trees growing well, outside in my new community on the south Oregon coast. Come to find out lots grows here that does not even grow well in many places in northern California... They call it the "banana belt" of Oregon and it's something like climate zone 9b in a little sliver on the south coast..." https://permies.com/t/69696/Lemon-trees-Montana-anyplace-cold This post came from tropicalfruitforum.com: jim VH Vancouver,Wa. zone 8b "Yes, My Sudachi and Yuzu easily survived 8F (-13.3C) in January 2017 in Vancouver Wa., just across the Columbia river from Portland Or., with only minor small twig damage and about 20% defoliation on each. The Sudachi appeared to have a higher percentage of small twig damage than the Yuzu. On the other hand, the Yuzu is a much larger tree, and size does matter." ================================ This is an archive of selected posts taken from a thread titled "hardy citrus, after the freeze", which appeared on the (now defunct) Cloud Forest Gardener forum, and discussed growing citrus outdoors in the Pacific Northwest: ____________________________ jim Location: Vancouver Wa. Climate Zone: sunset Z6, USDA 8b Dec 02, 2010 Well, it's been over a week, enough time to evaluate the damage. While this freeze was not particularly severe compare to last year (48 consecutive hours below freezing with lows of 23F(-5C) and 17F(-8C) this year compare to 117 consecutive hours below freezing with four consecutive lows a degree around 11F(-11.6C) in December 09) the earliness of the freeze probably affected the plants a bit severely, since as Eric of the Dalles/gorge pointed out, plants have not had as much time to harden off compared to prior years. I have a number of unprotected citrus that I'm evaluating for PNW hardiness, as well as some in christmas tree light heated mini-greenhouses. The greenhouse protected citrus were undamaged, fruit and all. In fact, it looks like the LA early Satsumas ripened a bit more, and may be ready by new years. The unprotected citrus: Yuzu- the tips of the second growth flush were nipped back an inch or two, not surprising since the second growth flush never hardens off. This is comparable to previous years, except last year when all the second growth flush was killed. Unprotected Changsha- slight tip dieback. This particular Changsha is the sole survivor of 23 unprotected seedlings I started out with two years ago, and survived (barely) last Decembers freeze, sort of unnatural selection of the hardiest variation of a random population. Indio Mandarinquat- It's toast; white bark and dead leaves to the graft. Oh well, I was wondering where I was going to put the Kishu mandarin I'm protecting in a pot indoors. Citrumelo- fully hardened off. No damage. It only had one growth flush this rather cool year. Thomasville citrangequat seedlings- there are six in pots. The pots are set in the ground with soil to the top of the pot, to protect the roots. Three of them show some damage- slight bark whitening, tho the leaves look OK. The other three seem undamaged. There's also a one inch tall Sudachi seedling, which appears undamaged. _________________________________ Las Palmas Norte Location: Lantzville, Vancouver Island Climate Zone: USDA zone 8b Dec 02, 2010 My (potted) citrus had no issues with the last cold spell. They are in a large 1,000 square ft coldframe (polytunnel - British equivalant) and the smaller ones where just gathered together in the center area - no heat. I'm not sure of the temps in there but outside the coldest night on Nov.23 was -8.3°C (17°F). Atwood Navel Changsha mandarin Owari satsuma Yuzu Ventura lemandrin Sudachi Meyer Lemon 10° Tangerine ... and several seed grown mandarins My biggest problem was scale insect on some of these and now a black sooty mold has formed. Looks like a big maintenance issue come spring, should they make it. Cheers, Barrie. _____________________ jim Location: Vancouver Wa. Climate Zone: sunset Z6, USDA 8b Dec 02, 2010 For an unprotected in-the-ground citrus, the Yuzu seems to work in the Portland area. My Yuzu has survived the last three winters unprotected. Part of it's hardiness, I suspect, is that it;s grafted to a true poncirus rootstock, giving it early dormancy. I haven't seen any problems with soot or scale. Perhaps because it's been outside, the rain washes off sticky sweet that causes sooty mold, and the freezes kill the scale. It's available from One Green World nursery, although I suspect, based on last years results, the 0F degree hardiness they claim may be overhyped. Also, it's actually used in cooking by the Japanese, although a lot of people don't care for the taste or texture. There are hardier citrus: the poncirus or trifoliate orange, the citrumelo, the citrange, etc. but most people can't stand the taste (although some are able to eat Citrumelo's, cutting out the sections like a grapefruit, which it resembles, making sure none of the bitter peel oil gets into the fruit. When or if mine sets fruit, I'll test the hypothesis). The following, somewhat more edible citrus may be as hardy, or hardier than the Yuzu, particularly if grafted onto a poncirus rootstock: Taiwanica lemon (seedy but edible, and, being a lemon, it will ripen here) Thomasville Citrangequat (some people don't like the taste, the one I got from Stan McKenzie tastes great, like a lime) Sudachi ( the one I have tastes fine to me, and it's used while still green, so ripening is not an issue. The ten degree tangerine, from Las Palma Nortes list, may also be hardy enough, and maybe the Juanita tangerine, but I haven't tried them (too many citrus, not enough room, or money) There are also things like yuzuquats and razzlequats and a host of other hybrids, enough to drive one mad _______________________ eeldip "George in Portland" Climate Zone: 6/8b Dec 02, 2010 i have a poncirus in the ground, and its been great. pretty close to my house, in the winter the contrast against the wall is incredible. stole that trick from the chinese gardens. it hasn't flowered yet though, making me sad... _______________________ John S Climate Zone: USDA8 Dec 06, 2010 Don't buy a 10 degree tangerine. I think it makes it in SC because it gets so much heat that it can lose some. Mine died here. I waited to put it out until it was bigger, and it still croaked. I'm being a little conservative on my citrus. I will put my yuzu out eventually but I wan't it to grow up. Flying dragon and Ichang lemon the only ones out all year and they're fine. John S PDX OR ____________________ jim Location: Vancouver Wa. Climate Zone: sunset Z6, USDA 8b Dec 06, 2010 John, it's good to know about the 10 degree tangerine, something else to cross off the list. People who try out these different varieties help everyone else; out motto 'we kill exotic plants so others don't have to'. Even the Ichang can be iffy, mine was killed by last Decembers freeze, even though my grafted Yuzu survived. My guess is, the freeze came after a fairly warm November last year and sap was still flowing. When I inspected it, the bark was split and peeling, I'm guessing the flowing sap froze. The raging east winds probably did not help. If it had been grafted on Poncirus rootstock like the Yuzu, it may have gone dormant and survived. ________________________ John S Climate Zone: USDA8 Nov 27, 2013 I love this thread. My yuzu died last winter, then regrew from roots and is a small bush again. Jim, I love your idea about growing it on flying dragon rootstock. Maybe I'll try to bud it this summer (2014). I have been almost killing my citrus for years. I love to see the experiments of others to see if I'm on the right track. John S PDX OR _________________ jim Location: Vancouver Wa. Climate Zone: sunset Z6, USDA 8b Nov 22, 2014 This is an update of this thread about the travails and joys of growing cold hardy citrus in the PNW, detailing the outcomes of nine unprotected citrus during the winter of 2013-2014. Last winter was characterized by two significant Arctic blasts. The first began Dec. 5th 2013 and ended Dec10th and was characterized by 113 consecutive hours below freezing, one low of 10.8F (-11.8C), one low of 13.6F (-10.2C), and four lows in the low 20's. Daytime highs were in the mid-high 20's on four of those days. This freeze also had strong east winds of 20 mph with gust to near 40 during the first couple days. The second blast began Feb. 4th and ended Feb. 9th 2014 also with 113 consecutive hours below freezing. The nighttime lows were not particularly remarkable (for Portland), with three around 19F (-7.2C). What WAS noteworthy was a period of 36 consecutive hours where the temperature never rose above 21F (-6.1C). Daytime highs were also low-mid twenties for two other days. The compost pile indicator shows that the ground froze solid to a depth of 12-15 inches during each of these two extended freezes. Four of the nine unprotected citrus survived these two freezes: Yuzu on Flying Dragon rootstock: 30% defoliated, one small twig died Citrumelo on Flying Dragon rootstock: 20% defoliated, no small twig death. Thomasville Citrangequat on Flying Dragon rootstock: 100% defoliation, 30-40% small twig death First of twoThomasville Citrangequat seedlings on its own roots: killed to the ground, regrew one shoot in late July The following five unprotected citrus died: Troyer Citrange on it's own roots: This was the rootstock of the Kishu mandarin that died the previous winter. Small 5 YO Changsha tangerine on it's own roots: This was the seedling that barely survived four nights near 10F in the of freeze of Dec. 2009. Not this time. Two freezes in one winter were two much for it , I guess. Large 9 YO Changsha tangerine on it's own roots Second of two Thomasville Citrangequat seedlings on it's own roots Sudachi on Carrizo Citrange rootstock A few additional observations All of the five citrus that died looked pretty good until the weather warmed in late March, whereupon they turned brown and died. In fact, I was able use the wood in February to graft the two Changsha's and the Citrangequat seedling onto Flying Dragon rootstock, indicating the wood was still alive. Second, none of the Citrus showed any signs of the bark splitting that indicates sap was flowing at the time of either of the freezes. Clearly they were all dormant. Apparently, then, on the five plants that died ,it was the roots that were killed when the ground froze to a depth of 12-15 inches, i.e., the citrus themselves were top-hardy to 10F, but not root-hardy. The one Citrangequat one it's own roots that survived perhaps had a deep root that somehow survived, the root possibly protected by some Lingonberry plants that were growing fairly close to it. This, then, seems to be a second mechanism whereby Deciduous Poncirus rootstock improves the hardiness of those cultivars grafted onto them. Not only does the rootstock cause the tops to go dormant, protecting it from bark-splitting death, but it also gives it a set of freeze-proof roots. I was a little surprised that the Citrange died. It is reputed to be hardy to zero Fahrenheit. But then, Portland is a "hard" zone 8. Freezes here can last for up to two weeks without the temperature exceeding freezing, whereas in the South and Southeast, where most observation come from, temperatures of near 0F are often followed by rapid warmup above freezing in the following day or two. Base on observed damage, the Citrumelo is somewhat hardier than the Yuzu. Both can probably take a few more degrees of frost, possibly to 5F, or even lower. Both are hardier than the monofoliate clone of Citrangequat that I obtained from Mckenzie farms. The two Citrangequat seedlings appear hardier than that clone- both had some bifoliate and trifoliate leaves. Only one of the Citrus -the Changsha- was grafted. The Sudachi was a rooted cutting. http://www.cloudforest.com/cafe/gardening/hardy-citrus-after-the-freeze-t70.html ===================== This was posted on the former GardenWeb: pablo2079 January 18, 2007 I'm in Washington State... have had a Changsha and Meyer Lemon outside for about 4 years. The Meyer gets hit pretty hard in the winter, but the Changsha seems to be a real winner. Been down to 14f this winter and it's still looking good (the Valencia seems to have bought the farm though).