I'm very excited to finally get the retaining wall done I've wanted since I moved in 3 years ago. Before and after pics are attached.
Next step is to kill off the vegetation, install the mowing strip, build a walkway up the slope and landscape over the slope. I'm still very much in the planning stages. This area is a mix of shade and sun because it's on the north side of a house with deep roof overhangs. There's almost no sun in the winter, and the 5' or so closest to the house gets no direct sun ever. So plant selection will be smaller anyway, but I also need plants that can handle compacted acidic soil (primarily decomposed limestone) and work for erosion control without taking over the yard. As you can see from the layout, my initial thought it to lean heavily toward woodland natives.
The front side of house is all in cool colors: green and blue foliage with white/pink/purple/blue flowers. So although I started using cool colors in the original beds, I'm thinking of building around a color scheme that includes warm tones. Yellow perhaps? Or red?
Your ideas would be very helpful!
My tentative plant ideas are:
Short shrub/sun - cotoneaster, tea camellia
Shirt shrub/herb part sun - yellow root (Xanthorhiza sp.)
Short shrub/herb shade evergreen - Christmas fern
Ground covers - Lingonberry, phlox
Dwarf trees and medium shrubs: weeping redbud, rhododendrum, arrowwood viburnum, leatherleaf viburnum, oakleaf hydrangea, fragrant sumac, downy arrowwood
