Chookie wrote:
A particular spot in the bed at the front of my house. The house
faces south, so is in shade for most of the year.

The southern side of my house is cold, too, and so far we've not done
anything to the area out there. I don't think it'll be too hard, as it's
above teh level of the house (I'm on a hill), but it's interesting how its
being left in the too hard basket while we've been doing the east, north and
west.

There is a spot
which has a more westerly aspect, and in late summer, the sun comes
around and fries anything I have planted there.

My western side gets battered by the winds (like today) which, when strong,
shake the house, make the indoor palms wave their arms and move the water in
the loo. We planted a large cypress windbreak, which has done a wonderful
job, so we can make some little terraced lawns and feature trees within. The
soil is hard shale with hydrophobic dirt/ground shale in between. It's a
challenge.


I have just removed a sickle wattle from there -- poor thing had
fallen over trying to get some sun -- and have planted Plectranthus
argentatus and Wintersweet. Hoping the light hedge of Grevillea
'Moonlight' to the west might lower the death rate.

I'd have thought natives would handle the position better, although if it's
dark mostly, with a blast of westerly sun, maybe a bit challenging.

I have a bit under my deck, to the east, which was shady and dry, so I
planted it with natives which liked shady dry areas. later, my mother made a
fernery down there, and put in irrigation. Oddly, the shady-dry lovers are
still doing fine. Not better, or worse, but the same. There was a grey
wooly grevillia, a kunzea, an eristemon, and just out from under the deck a
bright red tea tree. And they are all quite happy with their changed
situation.

And she planted an old-fashioned geranium (pelargonium) in a pipe, and it is
going ape!

--
ant