Canna lilies in half whiskey barrels. Get the ones that grow huge and fast like omega, musifolia, ect.. If you start them early, like march or April, they will be 10ft tall and 6ft wide by august. Use the 5.1.1 soil we make here in this forum. They like sun, but will tolerate some shade. filix.

How cute! I found a website (googled) that listed a few plants that were fine for birds -- and it has a list on the same page of toxic plants. I noticed some herbs on there like thyme, rosemary, and oregano -- I'd maybe try an herb because they seem to be pretty tough. Nasturtium is also pretty easy to grow from seed -- just make sure it gets sandy, rocky soil. and I just noticed that you said you get shade.... sorry. Try spider plant, dandelions (seem to grow everywhere), or fern. I don't know how well fern will handle nibbling, but they can be surprisingly tough. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Plants For Cockatiels

Hi, It has been a while since you asked... Anyway, if it has to be a shrub/tree growing in water, then in my understanding it is tropical, like a mangrove bush. No temperate climate thing that I can think of. But there is a beautiful plant, you could look it up, its Latin is Butomus umbellatus. It is herbaceous - soft, no wood. But it grows into a beautiful bush with flowers on tall stalks, and places specializing in aquatic plants could have selected varieties of it with bigger/brighter pink flowers. In the wild they are white and finely veined. Can't figure out its English name, but it is common in the North of Russia and should be common in Canada.

All of my gardens are on slopes. I just build a small bed using rocks - the idea was to mimic rock outcroppings. I didn't have any really large rocks so I tried to group them. I don't have much planted in it yet but I could post a picture if it would help. My main garden area is on a fairly steep slope that started out as a erroded, barren mess. The main feature is a small pond and stream. Once the plants got established they have done really well, but it did take yards of compost and mulch to help get the plants established. My home page shows my pond and surrounding garden - maybe you will get some ideas there. Sunset books has a great book on hillside gardening - I found it at Lowes - it is very reasonably priced. Also, check on the Landscape Design forum as there are always posts about hillside gardening. Also, just a suggestion about mowing grass on a slope - a self-propelled mower makes it much easier and much safer. Here is a link that might be useful: My home page - click on the Pond Page