Where is your house?

Close to full sun

Yes, full sun plants should work in this area.

Tim, zone 9, CA bay area. Thanks for reminding me that I need to provide all the information I can! Rookie mistake :)

What type of look do you like for your plants? Hard to make recommendations without knowing what you like and more about water (sprinklers, drip, no supplemental water, etc)... but a very easy not care plant the hummingbirds love is island snapdragon (Galvezia). It does well for me in the type of sun you describe. Needs hardly any water. Hummingbirds love it. Tiny little red flowers. Nice light green foliage.

Or did you want a climbing plant for along the wall?

Cori Ann, I was under the impression that it would be a really difficult spot! The previous owner had planted Hebe there, and they just weren't happy. So I was going to go with whatever the hive mind here suggested! The strip I am talking about has soaker hoses 18 inches apart buried a couple of inches under ground, is right next to the wall, and has a water hose couple of feet away. (Pretty typical suburban front of house situation).

Perrenials would be great, and if it is full sun, I would love to try the Galvezia you suggested. Not climbing, please, as the kids' bedroom windows are right above it.

5birdy, thanks for the tip about petunias! I would have started with those on my front porch this week!

Thanks again!

The kids might like seeing all the hummingbirds at the galvezia ... and it's s no muss no fuss plant so a grouping of those may work really well. I'm not sure how they would like the soaker hoses. Mine seemed to like no drip better than drip. They need very little supplemental water after a season or so. Maybe just a spray every 1-2 weeks in summer... even less if you're closer to the coast than me. You could always just keep the soaker hoses off. :)

Hi - how deep is the bed (narrow and just one plant or deep enough for layers - it'll also determine size of the plants recommended)? Guessing the wall is light colored so you really need plants that can handle scorching sun. You can do any of the sedums, lavenders, coreopsis, echinacea, rudbeckias - if you're willing to water a bit more than totally drought tolerant - there are dwarf cannas, enough space between the wall and plant and daylillies can handle it. The base of most of the 2 to 3 foot tall perennials can get ratty looking, so if you have space for a bit of ground cover - something 6 to 8 inches tall - the overall look of the bed will be a bit better. Thymes do really well for that. Overall size of the bed will help us with recommendations and if you prefer a neat trim look or open loose plants and a wildflower look. Know that very few plants bloom all summer, so you'll want something that looks good when not blooming.

Wow, Maggie! Thank you! All the flowers you mentioned are my favorites, and I never thought about the ground cover aspect. I sure could use that in other parts of the yard too! Off to measure exactly when and for how long sun hits that spot!

5birdy, those numbers are rough guides. 6 hours is full sun sure but 6 hours of full sun at latitude 40N is going to be a lot less light than at 20N. Here in LA I have full sun plants that are quite happy with 4 hours of sun but those same plants would suffer with 4 hours in SF.

Well, it was a lot less than I had estimated. The kids' windows get sun till late, but at the ground level it goes into shadow fairly soon. I am also thinking I should wait for the sun to shift back to it's summer location before making a permanent decision. Until then, I'll pop some annuals in and see how they do! You guys are the best!

As Nil13 said, makes a difference what kind of sun you have - Bay Area inland with hot dry summers or more coastal. Given I used to be Bay Area Contra Costa County - I was thinking of the hot sun for zone 9 Bay Area.

Peninsula, cooler and foggier, for sure. But a bright, strong later afternoon sun that I am beginning to realize shines for less time than I thought. Definitely need to wait for another month and see how the summer light hits it.

Oh, that does make a difference!

Yikes Nil13, you can tell I'm a novice. I lived 8 miles from the San Diego coast and could grow all kinds of things in containers - including petunias- on my condo with 4 hours sun so sunlight really confuses me. KCandmilo, you might be just fine with petunias! I've since moved 40 miles inland and the superintense heat and wind just destroyed everything I brought with me in containers. Sorry to have misguided anyone. The topic just set off all kinds of alarms :)

Lol, no worries! I was talking it over with a friend, who is an older, more experienced gardener, and she laughed and said after all the agonizing, I would find the so called perfect plant hated it there! She said I'd probably wind up planting and moving a few times before I figured out what liked growing there. I went to the nursery and got some cool new plants, bulbine, and digiplexis and a reddish pink blanket flower. (Not all for this spot, and can't wait to see what happens!)