In article ,
Eric Gray wrote:
I recently bought a home in Liberty Hill(35 miles North of Austin) I would
like to improve the yard by planting some flowers and plants. The yard is
totally shaded and covered with live oak trees. I'm just getting my green
thumbs so they would have to be easy to grow. Any ideas would be greatly
appreciated. Thanks



I would expect deer in Liberty Hill, so unless for some reason that's not
the case, check out
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/p...ions/deer.html
for some hint as to deer-resistant plants. You don't want to go through
a lot of expense and effort just to end up with a bunch of twigs or less.

Also likely to be of general use would be the City of Austin's Grow Green
plant list (http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/greengarden/plantlist.htm). Their
printed booklet is free and very nice
(http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/greengarden/nurseries.htm).

In my shade area, I have salvia coccinea (scarlet sage), Texas betony,
Nana nandina (sorry, nandina haters, I didn't know), and dwarf ruellia
(dwarf mexican petunias). Peppermint worked well for a while, but I
don't think that I managed it properly.

Totally shaded cuts down the selection possibilities a lot, but there
are still choices of shrubs, flowering perennials, and ground covers out
there. Of course, intersecting those plants with a deer-resistant list
would reduce the number even more.
--
Marc Stephenson IBM Server Group - Austin,TX
T/L: 678-3189