Obviously, I'm new to gardening. I had no idea where to post this (Texas gardening, cottage gardening) so I guess this is best! I have lived in my little house a year now and still have nothing planted in the area in front of my porch, on either side of the steps in front of the concrete front. My house is a raised foundation cottage built around 1915. If you can see in the picture (I know it's small, my apologies) the right side (if facing the house from the street) gets full sun. The left side of the stairs gets a lot more shade due to the mt. laurel trees on that side of the yard.

I am interested in plants that conserve water use and are drought tolerant but this doesn't mean it needs to be exclusively what I plant as long as it's a healthy mix. I would like something that comes close to the floor of the porch, at least in back, and lots of color. I would like to find an ideal mix to keep things colorful year round.

Obviously I need two different types of plans for each side of the porch..

I like a little "wild" or cottage-like vs. formal. I don't know what will work where but I can tell you I like Lantana, Plumbago, Zinnias, Phlox, Hostas, Texas Sage, Cannas (sp?), and I don't know what else. I don't want to have to prune anything too often, any complicated schedules with regard to watering/feeding/cutting will just confuse me and they'll all die as a result.

So, ideally all of it would be able to be watered / cared for on the same schedule. Thanks in advance for any help!

Sheri

Here's a pic of the front of the house:

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