I have a japanese yew in similar conditions - it survives - although I
wouldn't describe it as vigorous. It gets NO water, and sits in a tiny
island of soil surrounded by asphalt, under the eaves, just to the side of
my attached garage doors. (I didn't plant it there - it's really against my
nature to torture plants). I suspect that either it transpires very slowly,
or has a root system that extends into the irrigated lawn 5-6 feet away, or
both. I'm pretty sure that you could plant one under your eaves, but you
would need to water it for one year to get it established.
"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
I'll be moving into a new house this week, and a couple of spots present a
challenge. The house has eaves extending outward almost 3 feet - great for
summer. But, it's a desert under those eaves. There's nothing growing
there
now, and it's not due to anything the previous owner sprayed - it's just
bone dry. I intend to create a very deep perennial border - perhaps 6'
deep.
My initial idea is simply to cover the dry areas with some sort of flat
stones and not even try to get anything to grow. This would give me easy
access to the back of the border (and the house itself) for maintenance.
But, I'm still curious if anyone's gotten anything interesting to grow in
such spots, WITHOUT having to water constantly. I'm in upstate NY, zone
5-6
(depending on exposure). Could be any of the basic "generic shrubs" as a
backdrop for the border, or perhaps something more interesting.
-Doug