I have a pitiful are on the side of my house that is enclosed on two sides with wooden retaining walls and one side with concrete wall from my houses foundation. The slope is crazy steep since its bordered by stairs on the fourth side. It is filled with clay. I amended it (poorly since I'm a pitiful gardener) several years ago and planted the following

1. two large gardenias

1. japanese magnolia

10 or so daylilies

1. confederate jasmine

and a bunch of liriope? (monkey grass is what grandma calls it)

Most of the monkey grass is floundering or dead because it was overcome by weeds (I don't ever see that side of the house so I often forget to check on it) and I decided that it would be easier to round up the monkey grass.

So now I have a big bald clay area and my plants are all in various states of pathetic as follows

gardenias - leaves turn yellow alot

magnolia - last frost may have killed it. all the leaves are brown and crunchy

daylillies - small but blooming

jasmine - sent out a shoot way far away that is doing well, but otherwise is dark green and crispy looking.

I am thinking that to help I need to amend the soil - then I want to plant something that is low maintenance in the bald area to keep it from eroding.

Suggestions?