I have this strip in the back, 30" deep and 15' wide
>Tons of leaf litter
>Top soil seems to be amended, but a little dry
>Even saw mushrooms growing last month
>Mix of sun and shade throughout the day
>Clay soil underneath
>Colorado
I want to try Alaskan lupine, four o'clocks (which I know can survive here with watering), amaranth, and a ground cover. I have low-but-not-no-knowledge on this stuff, I mostly just know leaf litter mulch and wood chips can help retain moisture and amend the soil over time.

Any recommendations?

>>2826327 (OP)
four o clocks are easy, so are snap dragons, marigold and zinnias. get some hen and chicks, its spreads out pretty well. we grew all these in eastern colorado no problem in just native soil.

>>2826330
Sadly no pets allowed where I'm at, else I'd 100% get quail.
Plant nursery near me has some marigolds I could grab, I'm thinking as an accent. Do those replant themselves each year? Looks like they grow pretty short so that's a decent cover.

>>2826335
im talking about picrel
dont buy plants of the flowers i listed, just go to the dollar store and they are 4/$1 for packs of seeds, they are all very easy to grow, yes they will seed themselves every year.

>>2826335
and four o clocks really do bloom at 4 oclock, its crazy

>>2826336
>im talking about picrel
Oh those are neat.
>>2826337
Yeah they're wild. House I had growing up had pink and yellow ones. The hummingbird moths loved them. I thought they would look nice so there's some blooms during each hour.

>>2826327 (OP)
>>>/diy/

>buy fuckload of flowers
>they are doing great
>attracting hummingbirds and bees
>blooming constantly
>get two days of 110F weather
>they all die
such is life in the desert

>>2826339
look at the sticky
>Gardening, farming and related activities

>>2826366
Yeah that's what I'm afraid of. Colorado is a monsoon / drought climate so any given year is a toss up of 75 with rain average or 97 no rain average for 3 years straight.
My parent's house has four oclocks that live in partial shade and only ever got rain water some years, so I'm feeling those as a good pick.

Didn't grab a photo because it started raining, but as I peeked back the leaf litter I saw that there's a nice goopy brown layer underneath.

The leaf litter is inches thick so maybe I'll have to remove some if I want to do any hardscaping, but it's definitely holding a ton of moisture.

Ornamental tobacco is underrated. Attractive to hummingbirds.

>>2826366
Snake a soaker hose around the bed and put a hose timer on the end of it. Whenever you want to water just turn the timer on for an hour.
Highly recommend Dramm brand soaker hose if you want something that'll last more than 1 year.

https://www.harrisseeds.com/products/41492-dramm-colorstorm-50-premium-soaker-hose

+ https://www.harrisseeds.com/products/40595-senninger-watering-pressure-regulator-12-psi

+ https://www.harrisseeds.com/products/40207-dramm-water-timer

>>2826624
Tabaco is a rather pretty plan. I heard it sometimes has a big rot fungus though. Maybe that only happens on plantation scale?

>>2826682
Every plant has fungal issues sometimes, I spray fungicide twice a year and it helps.

>>2826625
the soil isnt drying out though its just extremely hot

>>2827006
hmm I guess try to plant more things native to the area they should be able to tolerate it.

>>2827006
Either some native heat tolerant plants, or see if you can make an sort of tent / awning with shade cloth if the flower bed is small enough. It can be temporary and aesthetic if done a certain way.

OP here, trying to soak lupin seeds in a cold paper towel since I hear that helps germination.
July is late for planting but seeds are cheap enough to go for it anyway.

Got marigolds, amaranth, and this black climbing flower.

>>2827973
I have not needed to do that, just scatter/plant in the garden in fall and they will come up in spring. If you never grew any legume before you might want to use legume inoculant but I did not and they still came up.

They take a while to get first blooms, usually 2nd year you'll see some and 3rd year they'll be huge. Watch out for lupine aphids they killed a bunch of mine.

>>2828171
I don't think the lupine will grow here because clay soil. But I did try the wet paper towel method for a few days and got some small germinations. The last time I tried to grow them I didn't get any, so I think this is the trick. If not this time I will try the seed scattering in the fall.