There are many lovely vines you could use. If you want a fast-growing annual vine that would bloom repeatedly throughout the summer, you could try any of these: Morning Glory, many named varieties, fast grower, morning blooms Moonflower, fast grower, heart-shaped leaves, large white flowers that open in the evenings, lovely fragrance; starts bloomin in mid-summer You could plant moonflowers and morning glories on the same trellis, and have blooms in the morning and in the evening. Cardinal Climber Cypress Vine Purple Hyacinth Bean Vine Black-Eyed Susan Vine Scarlet Runner Bean Vine, fast grower but can balk at high heat Mina Lobata--can be hard to germinate, but then grows quickly and has lovely flowers Cathedral Bells aka Cup-and-Saucer VIne If you want a perennial vine that will return every year: American Crossvine--lovely, tough, fast-grower, loved by Hummingbirds Sweet Autumn Clematis--sort of slow the first year, but will reward you forever after with lovely, sweet-scented blooms in August when you really need something lovely in the garden. Likes shady feet and at least partial sun. Worth trying again. Once established it is very tough. Clematis--there are many lovely clematis vines that have beautiful blooms, but you will need to do careful research to find one that can survive our summers Wisteria--fast grower, but doesn't know when to stop, and this vine is a monster, so be sure you really, really want it because once you have it, you can't get rid of it easily Trumpet Creeper, Madame Galens--One very fast-growing, very tough vine. Orange tubular flowers. Sometimes this can be invasive, so again, be sure you really want it. If you plant one, be SURE it is a named hybrid as they are much less likely to become invasive. There is a yellow-flowered version called 'Flava'. I grow them both on a trellis and they have not been invasive for me. Honeysuckle, Coral--a hummingbird magnet. This is the well-behave American native (Lonicera sempervirens) and not the invasive Japanese Honeysuckle. Lonicera heckrottii--a couple of the named varieties are 'Goldflame' and 'Pink Lemonade' Boston Ivy English Ivy Silverlace Vine and Climbing Hydrangea can be slow to get established. Passionflower Dutchman's Pipe Climbing Roses There are many others, but these are some of the more common ones. Air Potato Vine is an old passalong plant that is very fast growing but is hard to find in nurseries. Coral Vine/Queen's Wreath is only reliably hardy to zone 8 but is a beautiful fast-grower. IT will have tip damage at 32 degrees and will freeze to the ground if temps hit the mid to low 20s, but it is gorgeous. Dawn

My ambitions have scaled back considerably - I now clear much smaller areas at a time - no more than I can easily resow with native grasses and flowers. I allow myself a blast of herbicide to do away with the worst of the nettle and bramble and hand weed until the grass and flowers are growing well enough...and I am still propagating as many plants as I can after the initial shock of proudly clearing the first huge bramble patch (a million tiny brambles appeared almost overnight)...and I have decided to get along rather than fighting all the time. I have a little wheeze at present, using the brambles as 'nurse' plants. They have shallow and not terribly competitive root systems while also making good natural tree guards so I cut back the longest canes, thin some out at the base and plant maiden whips in amongst the blackberries. The little saplings benefit from the support (and although deer pressure is very slight, the bramble also helps with protection against the infrequent water deer incursions)...and bulbs are turning out to be the restorer's friends - over 10,000 bulbs in 3 years are beginning to make little pools of light and colour... I let the celandines have their head, as well as wood anemones. It still feels terribly experimental and contingent...but nonetheless, I have planted the first trees I raised from seed this autumn - little understorey rowans (sorbus).

There is a berm there but heavy clay soil, so this tree needs to be drought tolerant and clay tolerant. ==>>> no matter what you plant ... no tree will be drought tolerant for 2 to 5 years ... the bigger the transplant.. the longer the time ... at the link ... read about planting in clay .... there are extremely few trees that cant cope with such ... its when we improperly transplant into it.. or water improperly.. when most failure occur .... have you ever had a soil test done.. to find out if your clay lacks anything besides drainage?.. a quick call to your COUNTY extension office.. might get you a fast general answer .... and how to have a soil test done ... and based on that ... the world is your oyster.. as to choosing options .... finally.. there is little instant gratification with trees ... at 41 ... lol ... you really do have a lot of time to go smaller ... personally.. i would never go with a 2 inch caliper tree ... in my case .. due to budget .... but if you have it.. go for it ... but even then.. i might go with only a 1 inch ... the smaller the transplant.. the faster it gets settled.. ESTABLISHED.. and the faster it will grow to specs ... and once there.. tree do grow rather fast ... i planted 6 foot bare root oaks ... and 15 years later.. they are going on 30 to 40 feet ... and that would only put you at 56 ... not even near the grave.. lol ... ken ps: z5 is half the US .. give us a big city name and state ... just in case it matters https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub

Hi Cori Ann - I'm a big proponent of the "mulch and don't wait" school of enriching soil, but I start with decent soil in the first place. It's clay, but loamy clay, so once I can get past the rocks and whatever else was growing instead of roses (like, horrors, a LAWN), I have decent stuff to work with. I do the usual lasagne method over the top of the grass or whatever, since I am wayyyyy too lazy to double dig anything (once at my old house, and never again). When I have a new area I want to turn into a garden, I give myself maybe a day's lead time (but fine if not) to do the following: - lay down cardboard, paper bags and/or newspapers, and cover with organic stuff like leaves, compost, vegetable trimmings, or whatever - usually 3-5" thick at least - Add some cheater topsoil to jumpstart the breakdown process - maybe 1" - top with leaves as top mulch, not necessary to shred if you have something to hold them in place (too much like work) or mulch if you're not cheap like me. A good additional 3" or so of these will break down over the season to enrich the whole bed. - Go ahead and plant where I jolly well want to. Dig a hole through the lasagne layers into the crappy soil, and mix all of the above into the planting hole, chopping vigorously at the vicious little grubs as you find them (good for the soul as well as soil). I always add some extra manure and compost as well as alfalfa when I plant (even in established beds), mixed about 1/3 with the rest regular soil, so this prepares the hole a little extra. - Let the worms do your work for you, to even out the discrepancy between your Cadillac planting hole and Nova rest of the bed. You don't want to create a huge sink if you have super clay soil, where all the water pools in your good hole and rots your rose, so by conditioning the rest of the soil while you plant you get the best of both worlds. Not having to wait, but not really leaving the rest of the bed on its own either. - When some of your roses die (as half of them will in zone 5 for me), plant the new rose in a slightly different spot from the old one to expand the Cadillac-ness of the rest of the bed. - Keep everything mulched with leaves or other organic material indefinitely to keep feeding your soil for a minimum of work, and maximum benefit with minimum wait time. Make those worms WORK for their grub. I've done this dozens of times in soil that you couldn't get a pitchfork into without serious sweat, and ended up mid-season with soil good enough to flip with a hand tool. The copious amounts of organic material mixed in with some real soil does it for me, and I don't fuss with waiting at all. Of course that's my soil and yours may differ. Cynthia