I've got a similar situation on my small back porch: sun from 1:30pm onward. I've got window boxes off a railing and have found that impatiens/busy lizzies, lobelias, tuber begonias and torenias did well last year. I would give New Guinea impatiens a try. Definitely forget anything that needs full sun. The year before, my snapdragons and dahlias stayed green, and the calibrachoa and portulacas never grew at all.

I've noticed that my daylillies, phlox, and dianthus does okay with just afternoon sun too, due to a large overhanging maple.

Nice bed. Looks great.

I don't see that you are limited at all in what you can plant. This is not really a shade situation. You appear to have very bright shade until 2 and full sun after that which is a substantial amount of time in the summer. This is more than enough sun to grow many different types of vegetables, perennials, even certain types of roses. I have a similar situation on the north side of my house although I get a little morning sun but not as much afternoon sun as you. I have two different types of dogwoods, a japanese maple, a paperbark maple, two azaleas, and many, many hydrangeas in that area and they are all doing great. The flowering shrubs put on quite the show in spite of not being in full sun.

That wall wants vines. And substantial shrubs with flowers and/or fall foliage that will look great against gray. A tree that tops out at 15-20 feet. Nothing too harsh- the wall needs contrast and softening.

From your posts I would have thought you have a lot of perennials already. Some of the more shapely viburums might
work, like mariesii or shasta. Rounded overall shape, strong horizontal branching, great flowers, and berries.

If you were going to stick with perennials, wouldn't you still want some shrubs and trees for winter structure against that big bare wall?

In that case, I would think about perennials with structure. Angelica (actually a biennial) baptisia which could take the afternoon sun, and you play with the different colors,

It will be fun to see what others' think.
Marie

How about some climbing hydrangea on a trellis with a few dwarf conifers at its feet? I imagine Katsura Gardens has something appropriate.

Blue Billow hydrangea should be happy too.

Cotoneaster spilling over the stone wall (I think it can take the shade but I'm not sure) interspersed with Siberian iris. Ajuga to fill in and lots of dicentra for spring.

Old style tall daylilies with spidery flowers (Autumn Minaret, Challenger, etc.) for middle height.

Claire

Oh, and you might want a tall fence panel at the corner of the house to keep the basketballs from bouncing into the garden.

Claire

And how could I forget Itea virginica - great spring flowers and fall foliage (if you don't mind the suckering) - watering might be an issue.

With small kids around you may not want digitalis which would give you height, as would verbascum (non-poisonous as far as I know).

The kids would probably enjoy peeling Lunaria annua seedpods to get that silver "money".

Claire

Nice wall, Lisa - aren't those flat stones great to work with? I can't believe you're not planning to fill the new garden with hellebores - that seems like the logical plant for this spot, assuming you see this space in winter.

I also agree that many daylilies would thrive here - I have some in a similar situation.

Personally, I'd shy away from vines on a shingle wall, and stick with upright shrubs or shrubs that are limbed up. IME, climbing hydrangea does not want a trellis, it wants to wrap itself around those shingles and get some real solid support.

Can't wait to see the follow-up pics.

dtd: the site may not be appropriate, but I was thinking of some clematis trained up something substantial. But I see your point about vegetation next to wood. Def. not climbing hydrangea.

Thank you so much for all the responses! I'm going to give it a lot of thought and respond to all the ideas, but today was a non-garden day. We had baseball, soccer, scout camp, then another baseball activity today. I'm beat, so wonderful discussions about ideal form and structure within a raised bed with a wall back-drop will have to wait for when I have two brain cells to rub together!

Lisa

Lisa, love your new b*ed! That rock edge is really nice. I would want to see something that had some height to it in the b*ed to soften the side of the h*ouse. Your widest area is in the middle in front of the window, but you could add trellis to both sides of the window. Tall, narrow trellis and install it with plenty of room between the h*ouse and the trellis for air circulation. There are lots of small clem*atis that would give you some interest without taking over the h*ouse or the b*ed. I have had 'Duchess of Edinberg' on a small trellis against my back and it gets maybe 3 hrs of sun and blooms fairly well. I actually have lots of buds this year. It is a double white. It has not climbed higher than 6 ft or wider than the trellis in 5 years. I'm sure there are lots to choose from and some that are specific to shade too.

Another tall but narrow option, is 'Sky Pencil' Holly. There's a similar shaped Bux*us 'Graham Blandy'. I just put in Sky Pencil last year and so far so good. That would add some evergreen to the b*ed too. Do you know whether it gets sun in the winter? Also, whether there is wind coming down the side of your h*ouse? I get wind from the back of my lot down the north side in the winter.

I like the idea of Hellebores. I would think clumpers would be better than anything that is going to sucker or travel. Tiarella cordifollia clumps and is pretty for spring and would go with the Hellebores.

You also have a great opportunity with such a nice raised b*ed to use it for something that needs great drainage.

Would love to see photos when you finish. :-)

Lisa,
That is a great looking bed I love the stone. You have already been given some great advise but I though I would add my two cents. I do like the idea of trellis and clematis I have been successful growing C. 'Princess Diana' and C. 'Markhams Pink' on a north wall. I would also repeat three shade tolerant smaller Hydrangeas (H 'Mini Penny, City Line series, Hydrangea serrata ÂShirofugiÂ, ect) pulling the one in the center forward to emphasize the rounded shape of the bed. This of course will leave you room behind the center shrub for the focal point, which will need to be rather low as your window seems to be dead center. I would also love to see some hellebores and something spilling over the edge of the beautiful stone wall.
North wall with clematis, hellebore, and ginger.

If I were to do it over again I would have only planted class 3 Clematis so I wouldn't have the "old wood" to look at during the off season.

Looks like a fun project let us know how it turns out.

One of the things that I should have said is that 90% of the rest of my garden is full sun, which means that I am excited to be able to think about shade plants rather than looking for sun plants that will tolerate these conditions.

SO many good suggestions! I was definitely thinking of vines on the wall, even climbing hydrangea, but it's good to know it might like the shingles too much. So now I am thinking, to the left of the window having three vertical matching trellises with three complimentary clematis on them. Then to the right, I am thinking of a green japanese maple. Around the Japanese Maple, I'd like to do hosta, something low, simple but interesting that wouldn't take away from the japanese maple impact. In front of the clematis, I'm thinking I like the idea of a swath of hellebores. Of course, now I have zero winter interest, but then, we really would never see this bed in the winter.....hmmmm.....more thinking!

Lisa

Lisa, Japanese Maples are one of my favorites. Since you are looking to use shade plants for a change. Two more you could consider to go wtih your Hellebores would be Heuchera, that would allow you to get some different colors in there, and Japanese Painted Ferns, that seem to grow easily and always look great and give you some different texture, leaf size and colors.

I'd just like to pipe up on the concept of winter interest.

In my humble opinion, a composition that includes the bare trunks of a well tended Japanese maple and one or more nicely-made wooden trellises with dormant clematis stems can have far more winter interest than most evergreen shrubs. Of course if you go with the helebores you will also have some nearly evergreen foliage out there. (But if you don't go out there in winter, that might not be the best site for hellebores...)