Melissa, broom is a pain in the neck. I used to love seeing it by the roadsides driving through the Italian landscape; so bright, so perfumed! But I think that is the only good context for it, in a way. It would be OK where it is on my property, if it didn't attract those effing beetles so wildly; in fact, IMO, the beetles exist precisely to keep the broom from taking over the entire world, since they suck the flowers and render them infertile. But the beetles are engineered to be wildly attracted to the colour yelow; that is, the stamens of ALL flowers,and due to the geography (or morphology???) of my land (sharply sloping down from the rose garden into the broom field and below that, oak woods,with a south-west orientation),having broom down there is like rolling out the red carpet for the beetles (well, the yellow carpet). Broom has strong, fibrous tap roots that can push their way through/ between rocks, etc. I think the only way I can do anything with this area is by hacking up the ground with my pick; I can't see just planting baby trees amongst that thuggish broom and hoping them to survive.Also, I'd have to water the babies in their first year, and I think the broom would just flourish all the more. Probably I'll try a mix of things and see what works best,but it will be necessary to work the soil before I plant anything. I probably should saw down all the broom in the area I wish to start cultivating, and maybe put black plastic bags over the stumps of the ones that are too deep rooted to dig up; for shade it might be better to rig up something artificial. I don't think your land was as abused as mine was; this area in question has been so badly eroded; I have to hunt out spots where it will be possible to dig down deep enough to start stuff. The rose garden area was similar when I started about 15 years ago,but I am not going to lug all this heavy clay, etc. all the way down there. To plant the first Leylandii I prepared an area,digging out rocks, putting in organic matter and kitty litter, etc. I'll certainly be watering it in it's first year at least! but the thing about Leylandii is that it was cheap; it's as tall as me and cost me all of 13 euros. So, if with some effort I can get it to establish,I might have a nice start.The thing is, even on the subject of drought resistance, people's experiences and opinions vary greatly with ALL plants, as far as I can see. To me,for example, roses are very drought-resistant once established, but many, many people heartily disagree with this opinion. So I will see what this Leylandii does before I make any decisions. Criteria for a nurse crop would have to be : economic ,(not to say, cheap) and fast-growing. But even for that, I will absolutely have to work on that soil ; as it is now, nothing new can start growing there, I think,except baby broom and maybe brambles (if they manage to compete with the broom)...bart

One way that I gauge how much moisture a plant may need is to research the wetland status of the plant. The USDA plants database and other websites report a "Wetland indicator status" that tells you whether a plant grows in wetlands in its natural habitat. Asclepias incarnata (Swamp milkweed) is an "obligate wetland" plant which means it always grows in wetlands in the wild, so this is a moisture-loving milkweed. In my gardens it grows reasonably well in medium moisture, and is surprisingly drought tolerant, but it does die back in late summer and I wonder if it would last longer in a wetter garden. Many if not most of the other milkweeds are well adapted to dry conditions, including A. syriaca (common) and A. tuberosa (butterfly weed). For Joe-Pye weed, it depends on the species but many of them also prefer to grow in wetlands. You might look into Eupatorium purpureum, Sweet Joe Pye weed, or Ageratina altissima (former Eupatorium rugosum, Snakeroot) both of which will grow more happily in drier soil. Most Phlox and Monardas will do well in medium moisture. Last year I grew Monarda punctata (Spotted bee balm) and M. citriodora (Lemon bee balm) from seed, and they are both very pretty and prefer dry sandy soil. Many Aster and Solidago (Goldenrod) species are very drought-tolerant, gorgeous late bloomers, and mine had lots of pollinators all over them in September and October.

"The temperature description matches my local climate exactly. The snow pack here from lake effect snow isn't quite as much as described above but is pretty close and consistent from year to year. The summer dry spell is the only difference as we get sporadic summer rains keeping things moist and happy" One other significant difference is summer humidity, and consequent night temperatures. Low humidity and high altitude in the Sierra Nevada means summer nights are chilly, probably only rarely over 10�C, not easy growing conditions for fungi. Conversely, high summer humidity where you are traps heat at night (I'd guess you often have nights that don't drop below 20�C?). These conditions are much better for fungal diseases; that's a major reason why so many western N American trees perform poorly in the east of the continent. Resin

Yes, I did. I'm quite happy with it so far. The uneven surface is a bit of an acquired taste, and it is not completely weed-free. It also took quite a while to fill in. Still, it works for my use case, and the periodic tiny flowers are a nice bonus.