I didn't have specific plants just yet, but one idea was an Azalea. I was reading some plant descriptions on ones I liked and some say "Morning sun with afternoon shade only" So I was looking into a solution to prevent them from getting too hot and still get enough sun on the west side of a building. (Afternoon sun only area). Will some shade cloth work? Something like a tight mesh over it?

Hi kimmsr, I would say my soil does not hold moisture particularly well, even though we do amend it and add organic matter every year. On the other hand, it does appear to drain well. A 10"x10" hole I dug two days ago and filled with water was drained in less than 10 minutes.The native soil is clay. We live in a very dry climate east of San Diego, where we are lucky to see rain once during the summer. It did happen to rain just a few days ago, and I can already see that my entire garden loved it, including the squash, which as of today show 85% new growth. Yay! As for the pH, I have no idea. I thnk it's time to invest in a soil test kit. In addition to ants, I see some roly-polies, some white flies, an ocassional pincher bug, and some weird tiny blackish bugs that emerged from the base of one of my Black Krim tomato plants that I pulled yesterday as it was doing poorly. I know I will have to spray all the plants with Neem at the bases now as I am sure these little bugs must have moved on to all my healthy tomato roots. I also saw them on my peach tree. My garden also shows evidence of visiting spiders. I really do not like to spray my garden with anything, but Neem has been quite gentle and I do want a harvest! Yesterday I got brave and chopped off two long yellow stems from one of the squash plants. It meant sacrificing some new growth and one new baby squash but this is still a bit of an experiment, after all. I may trim again today and bury the end of one stem in the soil just to see what happens. The older squash is sort of a funny color, with yellowish tinge in spots instead of the overall nice deep tan color I am used to. I hope it still tastes good! :)

Thanks for the advice all... I am using a good potting mix. They do rebound, seemingly without any problem by the end of the day. Shade loving? I had no idea! How much shade can they take? I have a screen porch below the deck they are on but it isn't much sun at all... The earwigs were hiding in the leaves but there were huge bites taken out in the same location that I pulled the earwigs out of...luckily, they seem to be eradicated.

They love fish fertilizer, miracle grow, anything really. Just water them good, then fertilize. You could try some bloom booster if you want it to flower sooner. Mine go dormant in the winter here and regrow from the roots. It cant take our cold without dying back, in 9a unless its in a greenhouse. It does come back from the roots here but in your climate it would likely die. You are doing the right thing bringing it inside. It may be dropping leaves due to lack of light and lack of humidity indoors during the winter. These plants lie it humid and indoor heaters etc make the air drier. You must be doing something right though, because you have helped it survive this long even though its going dormant in the winter. You can take ut out of the pot and root prune it, if you want to keep it smaller. They are pretty tough. When I want to start new ones, I take about 10 , 8inch cuttings a stick them in a gallon sz pot of potting soil..keep it in semi shade and moist and they root. Another thought, you could plant it in the ground and then dig it up and stick it in a pot for the winter. Its a lot more work though. I cut holes in the sides of my plumeria pots and sink them into the ground during spring, summer, fall..then dig up the whole pot, severing the roots that grew through the pots, and stick them in the greenhouse for the winter. Definitely work lol.