Hi Gardeners- thanks for the feedback! Bahia- a a HUGE thanks for your plant suggestions. I will put out my Western Garden book and look them up! I know it probably sounds weird to not want to put the plants in the ground, and putting gravel/decomposed granite down first. My reasoning is that I want to keep as much air and light flowing around there as possible: it's dark and damp now and our main living area inside the house looks back there. I compare it sometimes to being in the bottom of a well as I look out from our kitchen. I have been thinking about lightening the walls up w/ tinted whitewash -and not putting (many) in trailing-over-the-wall plants- to get more reflective light bouncing around. The east side of our property line abutts the wall of our neighbor's house, which until recently was covered with an enormous creeping fig which made a pretty green screen. I thought it was lovely and didn't want to take it down, but we had to since it was beginning to wreck their wall. We have since primed the wall white and we are astonished at how much brighter the space is back there (not to mention our house.) Anyway, I'm thinking about carrying that through the rest of the yard- no/minimal green plants on the walls and instead focus people's eyes on the hardscape and interesting containers. It will be a harder/harsher design for sure than, say, a cottage garden, but I'm thinking it can be interesting anyway. Also, about 70% of our yard is that terrace; I want to integrate some seating/human circulation up there. gottagarden- I only *WISH* SF was hot! That was my expectation when I moved out here from the midwest 15 years ago. :) Alas, we only get a couple of hot days every year. And we have a watering system already in place to help w/ the watering... there's still feeding/pruning/repotting to deal w/ but that can be done more infrequently. (Another reason I'm into fewer flowers; in another garden I learned all about how much work deadheading can become.)

If it were me.... i would get some treated lumber. 2x6 or 2x8 maybe 16 footers and lay out a giant box over the area. to support the box o would use 2 foot lengths of re-bar driven into the ground about every 4 feet around the outside and inside (but 1/2 way between the outside ones) then fill the box with gravel/ paver base. compact it and then lay down the pavers or flag stones (no if it were really me i'd just leave the top layer of compacted decompsed granite and be sure to have outside chairs that have big feet) diggerb

It really takes a large pot for success. Yes, dump the peat moss. I suspect the Miracle Grow potting mix might have been too rich. Every time I have used MG, even with a fraction of the recommended ratio of MG to water, I have induced tons of rot. Your garden will look good and the bloom will be great using MG, but just wait a few weeks until the weather warms and then comes more rot than you can handle. Walter Moores

I have no head for heights and that makes me feel a bit giddy but it must be fun to look out from there on a sunny day... I think I would grow the rose up the wall on the left and a clematis along the railings.. I would plant the clematis on the right at the corner junction to train the clematis along both railings. However, depending where the sun rises, you might find most of the flower stems try to grow on the other side of the railings away from you and some pulling back in and training this side may be necessary, so you get the most benefit. I'm not sure if I would use 2 individual pots rather than 1 large one. I grow a rose in a pot that's much smaller... it's about 1 foot from front to back, about 2 and half feet lengthways, and about 2 feet deep. The rose I grow in it is 'Benjamin Britten' and it's been there for 3 seasons now and is thriving. It will be good for another 3 I should think and I won't change the soil until I see signs of deterioration. It's about 5 foot tall and I've had about 4 flushes this year, and it's trying for a 5th but the weather has cooled.. I grow bulbs, Pelargoniums, Violas, Candytuft, along with the rose during summer.. nothing too invasive rootwise though. 9th Sept '16 'Benjamin Britten' in a pot... ..you can see a glimpse of my container here below, it's quite narrow across the top. I was taking a photo of my Molinia 'Karl Foerster'. I know I'm a long way off but just trying to give you some encouragement. Hope all goes well....