The earlier tree was dying, but shaded the kitchen and dining room windows while softening the exterior of the house. They are looking for a tree small enough to fit in the space without causing problems, so need ideas of varieties. Their earlier home was a large house with a generous yard and the small lot is a big change. Some other trees that were mentioned are flowering crab and hawthorn. The space is a 16 foot wide side yard between the house and the street, no sidewalk or power line issues. I'll look into how to load a picture as that might help you see our problem--I'm new to this site. I usually buy from a quality garden center when their trees go on sale in early spring and fall, so this isn't a rush decision. At this point there's one lonely yew next to the porch so they're also planning landscaping around the house, but the tree decision comes first.

Okiefamily, Last year was a difficult bean year for a lot of us and I blame it on the weather, so don't know if your wall/heat gave you additional issues or not. I think peppers will be fine as long as they are hot peppers and not sweet peppers. No, that's not an attempt at a joke. Hot peppers will set fruit even in extreme heat (sweet pepper production slows down in heat) so they'd likely go right on producing even alongside that hot wall. However, the reflected heat could sunscald (that's the garden word for sunburn) the peppers themselves. Watch for a light spot on the peppers that first appears as fading color and then enlarges and turns brownish-white. That's sunscald. If you start seeing sunscald on the peppers, rig up a sheet or something to shade them part of the day. Carol, I like the trellis idea. I am not entirely sure how far Red Ripper will run if you let it go as far as it wants, but I'm planning to plant it to climb a 2-story trellis this year and find out. I've heard it can go at least 18' and I know they are really vigorous, but I've never let them run as long/tall as they want before. Megan, Cherries might be fine on that wall. In fact, earlier in the season it likely will help them make great growth. I wouldn't worry about even the possibility of shadecloth until late June. At that point, just watch them and see if they are growing 'normally'. If you see signs of heat stress, like blossom drop (rare in cherry types) or wilting of the foliage, then you could rig up a shade cloth for them. They might never need it, or they might. Hard to guess and think a lot depends on this coming summer's rainfall and temps. Cindy, Glad you saw the humor in my torture comment. LOL Corn is easy as pie. A nice dense planting of a tall corn variety would shade that wall nicely and you could grow the type of corn of your choice....an heirloom or OP type with old-fashioned corn favor, an older hybrid sweet corn with normal sweet corn flavor, a newer supersweet or synergystic hybrid type, a popcorn, an ornamental broomcorn, a dent or field corn, or an ornamental corn. That's a lot of choices! The only real issue that might arise is that if there are too many sheds or garages, other buildings like a neighborning home, privacy fences, etc. near that west wall, then air flow might be impeded and that might impact pollination. If the rest of the veggies pollinate just fine on that side of the house, then I'd imagine corn would too. Last year was a really difficult gardening year because we had all the wrong weather at all the wrong times. I wouldn't judge myself as a gardener based on last year's garden performance. Just blame it all on the weather. I don't know if I've ever seen sunchokes locally, but you could order them online. I think tomatoes are a possibility if you just watch them carefully. Do you have a specific variety in mind, because if you don't, some of us who grow tomatoes in hot locations could list our best heat-loving tomatoes. : ) Okra might do well alongside that wall. I've never tried it on a west-facing wall but it certainly doesn't mind the heat anywhere else I've ever grown it. In fact, since okra needs heat to perform, you might get earlier okra pods along a hot wall so it could be a perfect 'match'. You could be our official hot west wall researcher and try 2 or 3 different plants along that wall and see which performs best for you there. We'll all be eagerly awaiting your results. Dawn

Some of the smaller Hydrangea paniculata might work as would some of the smaller red-twigged dogwoods - check out ones with variegated foliage for a longer season of interest. If you can find PJM 'Checkmate' rhodie, it's a small-leafed evergreen that's short enough (3') that it may be less bothered by wind. Mine is in a fairly exposed site in a river valley, so it may work for you. I also like Tim's choices and have found that H. serrata Tuff Stuff blooms far more prolifically for me than T&S.

Would you husband be opposed to a tandem garage? With a good architect and builder and of course $$$ you could build on and have a side facing garage. The garage would still fit 4 cars, but just tandem through the new garage into the old garage. They can fill in the current garage door and make it look like it is part of the house and not just a filled in garage door. Remove the old driveway and re-landscape. And your house would not look like all garage.