You could line the bottom with small rocks then put some larger small boulders (if that makes sense) scattered . You could always put potted pants on and with the rocks if you wanted color and would hand water.

I like that idea. Do you have a pic of something like that?

Growing anything under that overhang will be difficult and a pain UNLESS you have the space irrigated. Then, the planter is only deep enough for groundcover and annuals. The planters were designed by a builder ... not a person with landscape and horticultural knowledge.

What zone are you in? There are some smaller plantings that can fit in 2' wide area.

Weird, usually builders leave the surrounding ground below the slab foundation to help prevent any water leakage into the house. I've never seen what you got before? But you could plant some shade-tolerant, native wildflowers, herbs, or other forbs in there, I guess...

You shouldn't put large trees and shrubs against the foundation, but annuals and perennials and small shrubs are OK. I'd look for Xeric plants because of the overhang, you'll have to water of hook up a soaker downspout.

I’m in Dallas, Tx so I think I’m in zone 8a. These types of planters are all over Dallas and I haven’t seen anyone with good looking plants in them. They are either half bare scraggly or overgrown plants.

So it’s ok to water or put a soaker hose against foundation?

So it’s ok to water or put a soaker hose against foundation?

No, it's not. Unless you want a damp basement.....

Pieter

Given the style of your house it seems one type of low growing, drought tolerant, evergreen plant across the front might look good. Holly fern fits that description. I have it growing in a narrow builder designed planter at the front of my house by the front door. It only needs watering every couple of weeks.

Here are mine in San Antonio:

I also like the idea presented above of a simple combination of low growing drought tolerant plants. One of the sterile, dwarf, red foliage nandinas (which are evergreen and very drought tolerant) might work for one of the plants as well as the variegated lirope and/or the evergreen holly fern.

I would add water absorbing crystals to the soil to extend the time between watering.

There is a house in my neighborhood that has a broad expanse of light colored brick similar to what you have. In the summer they have three large baskets of Boston fern hanging from the eaves. It looks absolutely gorgeous! But would require you to hand water them every few days and taking them down in winter.

I had a similar but much shorter and higher placed bed against my old house. Because of the eaves, it was constantly shaded and never got any water. I installed homemade olla pots and watering crystals to absorb moisture, so the bed was watered consistently and slowly but didn't get wet enough to damage the house (lived with these for 15 years so good for that long at least). They needed topping off about every two weeks. Then I had to deal with the shade issue. I got ornamental kale to grow and look good there. I also tried mint and catnip, which grew but didn't look as good from a distance. Many other things I tried died horribly, including hosta, morning glories, parsley, wildflower mix, and chard. I should add that this was a brick sided house, so if you have a more porous siding between your basement and the bed, I would still worry about water damage.

It’s rare for houses in Texas to have basements. Some older ones are on pier and beam, most modern ones are on slab foundations. Oftentimes, due to soil settling and drought conditions, we are advised to “water” our slab foundations because the soil in some areas expand and contract excessively (leading to cracked foundations, which then gets blamed on any tree within ten miles, lol).

I would be tempted to just use it as the beginning of a foundation for a deck or patio.

No basement and, yes, house is on pier and beam.

Nandina or giant liriope might work. I would have to hand water every so often or maybe look into those crystals. I’m also thinking about cast iron or irises.

The ferns would be ok even with 2 hours afternoon sun?

Mine (ferns) get sun until around noon, then bright light the rest of the day, so I’m not sure what they’d do in direct afternoon sun (in the worst of our summer).

I had lirope growing in a crack between brick walkway, and house on the northside of the house < NEVER WATERED< and it did fine. How about that mahonia fern and northern sea oats. That grass grows with out water in shade under my eves on the north side of the house quite well and can take some sun. Salvia greggii also comes to mind. Agave bracteosa might make it in the Dallas area. I am unsure of the cold hardiness . It does like my shade.

PSA time again - please avoid planting any invasives, and ESPECIALLY NANDINA! Its toxic berries kill native birds/wildlife!!!

And no wonder, it's against the crawl space under a pier & beam (not slab) foundation!

Well for a dry planter, I would definitely recommend flowers and forbs with rhizomes, bulbs, tubers, taproots...or just deep, native prairie roots. These big roots serve as huge "batteries" that help them last through long droughts (like camel humps) - and that actually rot in too much standing water. Although mostly not native...I would recommend irises, daffodils, paperwhite lilies, chicory, native Texas dandelions, potatoes, etc. Irises can take a lot more sun, but I've also got clumps that have survived in perpetual shade (they just grow slower).

Anyways, pick such big-rooted plants and you won't have to worry about much irrigation!

Because of the large overhang, I don't think either of these areas get any rainwater.

Blackrab, yes, I knew about the poisonous nandina berries but I thought a non-fruiting one wouldn't be a problem with the birds and being so contained wouldn't spread but I don't really know.

For the shady one, I'm learning towards Cast Iron plant or Giant Liriope which are both rhizome plants. As for as the long one, I will look into the prairie roots plants. Maybe mexican feather although I did have some here and it looked a bit floppy. Also the native grasses in my area are little and big bluestem, switchgrass, and indiangrass. Inland seaoats might do ok but I'd worry about the seeds spreading like crazy in my yard.

I do plan to remove all the asian jasmine in front of the long planter as our yard is almost all jasmine and I want an area for my son to walk around in. I will also have to think if this area will remain bare or if I will put in some other plants here but that will be another post...

Well, even if the Nandinas don't fruit, it's still better to try to shoot for at least 70% native plants to help support your local ecology...
Also, no need to just limit yourself to native prairie grasses, either..as the wildflowers also all have rhizomes or deeep roots, too! I remember being shocked when I recently dug up a Texas Milkweed (Asclepias texana) to rescue/transplant it and discovered it had rhizomes the size of potatoes! But that's really par for the prairie course!

Salvia farinacea or azurea is absolutely stunning in clumps and has rhizomes. Silphiums like Roughstem Rosinweed, White Rosinweed, etc all have verrry deep roots.

Standing Cypress, Texas Bluebells, Winecups, & Purple Horsemint are also some real beauties!
And while most of these all do love full sun...in Texas, even being under an eave could still qualify as "full sun" elsewhere! Like, I've seen fragrant Prairie Phlox growing profusely under a large tree...so many of these may still be worth a shot!

I would simply fill it with pea gravel.

Filling it with wildflowers or grass would mean this space would be bare in winter...

A few have told me that I need to have linear design due to architecture so then would that would be that my linear design would be in front of the planter instead?

^ Well, that's why I would plant some evergreen irises and maybe Creeping Phlox groundcover for some evergreen foliage. Irises are pretty bulletproof in Texas, especially the stock white, yellow, and purple varieties... But, there's also some really stunning, even showier types as well! And then just intersperse all the wildflowers amongst them for more seasonal color!

Hi Pieter from BC - let me tell ya a couple of things about Dallas, Texas.

1. Basements? No. Don't have 'em. The ground would crush it.

2. Yes, you MUST "water" your basement- especially in the summer so the slab doesn't crack,

A soaker hose is essential for good Dallas foundation maintenance!

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=watering+house+foundation+in+texas&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

You need to research or reach out to someone who can recommend the right plant for that area. I think something simple and the same for that entire box would look good. Maybe an ornamental grass that keeps low or even something like creeping thyme pictured below or a mix of low growing drought tolerant herbs.

Placement of the soaker hose that other posters have mentioned, seems to be a key factor in the success of your foundation watering process.

OP, that skinny planter under the overhang and behind the larger one might be something that the builder did to keep roots from whatever is in the bed in front of it from growing and making their way into your crawl space. I can't be entirely sure because I'm not there to look at it in person. :P My parents had a bed planter along both sides of the garage which was on slab only, while the rest of the house had a raised foundation (this was in SoCal) and planters along that in front where the master bed/bath was as well as in the back where the other two bedrooms were. When they decided to extend the master bedroom about 6 feet and reducing the sqft of lawn from where the front of the house ended to the sidewalk, they had to add some additional supports that went down into the ground deeper than the ones that were there before and put in some kind of root barrier to keep plants with extensive root systems from eventually causing all of the supports underneath the entire extension from shifting and potential collapse in an earthquake or in the event of significant soil settlement. The neighborhood nearby had houses that sank and some that heaved upwards because the entire area used to be dairy farms. That one was all slab foundations, but whether the house was on a raised foundation or a slab, the possibility of sink or upheaval was a concern because the prior land use was dairy farming. Add to that, earthquake risks and frequent periods of drought, alternating with el nino weather events? We probably could have used some foundation watering ourselves. :P

For the particular concerns about the clay soils where you are and the type of foundation you've got, I'd consider using containers, partial sun/partial shade plants, and hand watering with a hose for the narrow planter area underneath the overhang. The wider one in front of it, something with deeper roots but ones that don't grow like crazy in every direction and more of a ground-cover that is low growing/spreads horizontally more than vertically. I'd suggest going to a plant nursery (if you can find one locally that isn't at a big box chain store like Home Depot, Lowes, etc...that would be ideal) and asking them what they'd suggest, and show them photos taken of the areas you intend to plant in on your phone (since most people have cell phones and those tend to have cameras built into them) for reference.