This is what works for me, dwarf day lillies, I also have bigger ones, but my garden is big, portulaca, i know i didn't spell that right, ice plant lirobe (i mispelled that too) creeping jenny any kind of dwarf iris, i have african iris, but don't know if it's hardy where you live, blooms all summer. Do you want only succulents? I mix them and they grow fine together. Try small ornamental grasses too, they live fine on my hill with the sedums and hold the soil. Mondo grass, the spike thing, it also comes in red, don't know the name of it, but they are sold everywhere for pots, i planted it and it came back this year, I also planted fiber optic grass. Looks real nice with sedum.(may not live this winter, but looks nice now). GOod luck with your hill.

If you are growing out-breeding plants, you will want to attract pollinators. Flowers that are strong producers of pollen or nectar, and bloom over long periods, are best for this purpose. I believe that color alone is a relatively small factor. Flowers provide a food source for some beneficial insects, such as the wasps mentioned above. Those that bear plentiful seed (like sunflowers, dill, and cosmos) will also attract birds; whether the birds attracted will also eat harmful insects is another question. If you are saving vegetable seed, plantings of flowers between different cultivars of the same species may reduce the chances of cross-pollination. This works well for inbreeding species like beans & tomatoes. I have read of some flowers being used as "trap crops", to draw harmful insects away from vegetables; but most of these recommendations were anecdotal. In the vegetable garden, I try to limit flowers to "bee plants". Sunflowers would qualify. I'm not certain that petunias & marigolds have any beneficial effects, beyond their aesthetic value. I remember reading about marigolds grown as a cover crop, to reduce nematodes I believe; but that would require a major planting. There are also vegetables that are not commonly grown, that do triple-duty. Scarlet runner beans, purple basil, and bitter melon are attractive, edible, and good bee plants.

"How do you keep the woodlands in the back of some of those pictures from invading?" I work very, very hard to keep invasive plants out of my yard and remove them when they try to take hold of my garden, including unwanted trees, shrubs, vines and tree seedlings. It's my worst nightmare. I really get tired of it, that is for sure. Although there are no vast, heavily wooded forests here, there are still the plants that grow in the woods that move onto the property and into the immediate yard. It is a continuous battle. There are no heavy woodlands in the background. There are wooded areas along creeks. There is one small wooded area behind my back yard., I call "the Little Wood", and another slightly bigger wooded area further up the hill on my property, which I call :"The Big Wood", but no woodlands. All the vegetation and trees you see in my photos are what I grew with only a few exceptions. I live in the middle of the prairie. Here is a picture I took of the land on the southside of my property, along my driveway just so I could show people what this place was like when I bought it, minus the trees. The white flowering Spirea, Jonquils and green grass along the fence is on my side along the driveway. The trees in the distance are mostly junipers, elms, and hackberry growing along a dry creek. I don't believe any of those trees are native. They have become naturalized. The creek is dry most of the year but runs with runoff water after heavy rains. Farmers cannot plow there, so they leave them for shelter for their cattle. Now, I turned 180 degrees around and took this picture of my front yard: All the land around me looks like the the above land or with even fewer trees and underbrush. Mostly prairie grasslands on rolling hills. Now, if you drive 30 or so miles northeast and southeast of here, you will start getting into the woodland areas, and far eastern Oklahoma there are pine woods and river birch, much like the rest of the South, but not here. The worst thing I have to deal with is Bermuda grass and prairie weeds that blow into the yard, wash down the hill into the yard, or are carried into the yard by animals (via stickery seeds) or through animal and bird poop. Oh, they are awful!!! We get Poison Ivy in the yard and it has to be sprayed - I am terribly allergic. Puts me in serious jeopardy. We have Tall Ragweed that grows up to 18 ft tall. and the regular short ragweed There are sweetbriars, and all kinds of sticky, thorny, seedy vines. There are Cowpeas (Creeping Vetch), Wild Cicily, Buffalo Burrs, Stinging (Spurge) Nettles, Horse Nettle, Nightshade, Poisonous Sumac, Chickweed (from h*ll), Lamb'c Quarters, Virginia creeper (invasive here), Curly Dock, Poisonous Hemlock, Wild Cucumber, Wild Onions, Wild Carrots, Shepherd's Purse (oh so awful this year), and many, many more intrusive, weedy, prairie-type plants, as well as the woodland-type plants. I work hard hoeing, chopping and cultivating all the weeds and weedy grasses out of my garden. I have to battle with weeds and wild grasses and vines all the time. Oh, I hate Johnson grass, Nutgrass, Bermuda grass, and all the other weedy grasses that plague any garden and those "sticktight" vines that grow rampant in trees, bushes and everywhere if they get started. Gads. So, my answer is simply this: I work my arse off. ~Annie

So Brazilian Button Bush is one of those kind, huh Jim? Well, some of us with oak/rock/deer need plants that that ... LOL! Ibheri, I really enjoyed attending the meetings at the local Rose Society here in San Antonio. I met some very good friends there. Most rose clubs, even though formed mainly for hybrid tea rose exhibition, have members who are primarily interested in shrub and antique roses. You might want to seek them out. Kristi, there is just something about having roses in a flower garden that adds a certain elegance and warmth, even if you don't like them, at first, that is. They 'grow' on you! Carrie, I'm surprised myself that I don't have more bugs. It seems that after a few years of mostly organic gardening the good bugs are keeping the baddies in check. I don't even have thrips right now, and plus they say that organic fertilizer builds healthier plants that are able to develop strong defenses again bug attacks. Not that I don't have a few. Squash bugs have already killed the squash plants. I should have used row covers. Next time I will.