Can you post a photo of the beds and in relation to the building?

I'll get some pics if it ever stops raining.

I finally got some pics yesterday. The first pic is the main area of concern. That one is full sun. The others are shadier as you can see.

Right now I'm leaning toward either leaving the Rose of Sharon in the middle and replacing everything else with Henry Duelberg or Mexican Bush Sage in the sun garden. I'm leaning toward Turks Cap in the shadier areas. Beautyberry might be nice too, but I'm afraid they might get too large for the location. Obviously I'm looking for any other suggestions for plants that would be easy to keep clean with a leaf blower. I can't emphasize enough what I nightmare the Yuccas and Dianthus are with the amount of leaves and trash we deal with.

The other thing is we'll be replacing the mulch with rock. While I know the plants would probably prefer the mulch, we keep blowing away mulch every time we clean out the beds. Rock will be much easier to maintain.

First off I'd look around and see what the commercial growers have planted which are doing well around malls and strip centers in your area.

I can see Purple heart or Giant lirope under the tree to pick up the purple from the trim. Both are used a lot in commercial sites with good reason; they are easy to grow and stay looking nice through the season. Purple heart dies back in winter, but Giant lirope would be evergreen.

In the sunny areas how about dwarf crape myrtles described HERE and/or Dwarf Barbados cherry which are evergreen in most winters. In my yard the thickly foliaged Dwarf Barbados cherries grow well in either sun or shade and always look good. The small shrubs could be surrounded with low growing annuals of a contrasting color. A different choice could be made from from year to year to provide interest.

I'll be interested to see what other suggestions are given.

I'm in Austin, so my conditions aren't too far off from yours, Roselee. Around here, some plants of choice for sunny areas in commercial settings are Yucca, Lantana, Cherry Sage, Knockout Roses and Blue Plumbago. The thing that concerns me about those plants, minus the KOR's is that they'd be just as bad of garbage catchers as what we have, given their growth habits.

I do like giant liriope. I just wonder how it would be as far as catching trash and leaves. Can anyone speak to that?

I'm familiar with purple heart. That's definitely another tough plant I hadn't thought of for this spot.

Dwarf CM's are something I'll have to look into. It seems like most of what I see available here are the mid to large sized ones. I could see them filling a similar niche as knockout roses. KOR's would be perfect, but I'm a little hesitant having something thorny there with small kids running around after services.

Interesting you mention the Dwarf Barbados Cherry. I planted five of them under the Live Oak in my front yard. Last year, they didn't grow at all. This winter, they froze to the ground but all returned from the roots. They've grown only nominally larger than last year though. I'm hoping the third year is the charm for them! Needless to say, I'm not real bullish on them, given my experience.

Keep the suggestions coming!

I can understand your reluctance to use Dwarf Barbados cherry after having it freeze to the ground last winter. The two day surprise freeze in Feb. just toasted a little of the foliage at the top of my established bushes. Otherwise they stayed green and thickly foliaged.

Maybe something like dwarf youpon holly or one of the colorful dwarf nandinas would make a good evergreen shrub to give a basic structure to the bed.

I'm wondering if anyone has had success with the dwarf crape myrtles suggested in the link given above.

Lots of good advice here and good, tough plants; however, I think a mass planting of almost anything of any height will be a trash collector. I would use a ground covering plant over about 80 - 90% of each bed's surface. Then add well spaced, taller accent plants that will not grow into each other to allow easy blower access on all sides of each taller plant. For the sunny bed I would consider for groundcover a mix of silver ponyfoot ( dichondra) on the outside edges and purpleheart towards the interior. Both are thugs and let them tangle and duke it out. The purpleheart will probably freeze down in winter, but the ponyfoot will continue to provide interest until the purpleheart comes back in spring. To provide a longer season of color I would replace the Rose of Sharon with either an Esperanza or a medium growing, pink, lavender or purple crepe myrtle. Crepe myrtles come in standard/large size, medium growers at about 6 feet and extra dwarf at about 2 feet. I would go medium. Accent plants should be used in odd numbers, i.e. 1, 3, 5 etc. The Barbados cherry (maybe 3) would look good in this bed with the crepe myrtle. Or dwarf yaupon.

In the shadier beds I would use monkeygrass for the groundcover. Repeat the same accent plants in appropriate numbers to allow the wide spacing. Yaupon and Barbados cherry both will grow well in sun or shade.

My 2 cents worth.

Another you might consider for the shady beds is inland sea oats. It's one of a few things that does well for us against a tree trunk in heavy shade were they stay around 2 ft tall. They have an erect nodding form that seems to clear fairly well for us with the leaf blower. They should recover well from the occasional beating most anything in that small high-traffic area is sure to get. We remove the seeds around mid-winter as they start to fall from the "chevrons", so get few volunteers. Self seeding in moist soil seems to be Penick's only caution. There's also a newer variegated cultivar, but it's still hard to find.

Gregg dalea is another option for a ground cover. Does get fussy about placement in north Texas blackland prairie, but tough where happy and probably more broadly adaptable in central Texas.

Patty, that's a good observation about the need for stepping stones where the red car is parked.

Eric, I dearly love the idea of silver ponyfoot as a ground cover.

Bostedo, inland sea oats is a great idea too.

All y'alls ideas are good!

"Keep them coming".

AWW, Bostedo beat me to the Dalea gregii. Great ground cover for sun and part shade. I also like Berkeley sedge for shade to sun, hunky and swirly texture. I saw an interesting Chinese fringe tree that is grown as a 1' high spreading shrub. A nice dark purple color (available at the Natural Gardener). One can't beat lantana for the sun and long lasting color, heat resistance, etc. How about Bamboo Muhly for soft texture that takes sun to shade.

Sorry I haven’t checked back. I’ve been sidetracked with other things.

As I look around the area, I’m definitely sold on Mexican Bush Sage in the mix. A mid size Crape Myrtle in the middle is a given too.

Even though it’s everywhere, I do like liriope.

Im even thinking some dwarf coneflowers may be nice at the front of the bed.

Hmmm!

Whatever you choose to do, you certainly have your work cut out for you. Hey! If you aren't busy Saturday, why don't you come to San Antonio for our plant swap ? Most of us who have posted here to answer your question will be there! Enjoy this gorgeous day !

I've never been to a plant swap, Castro. I'd like to check one out someday. It won't be this one though. I'll be visiting my family up in the great white north.

Sounds like the great north may be a lot whiter this winter. Where is your family ? Minnesota ? Michigan ? I have family in both.

Finally revisiting the topic! Yes, Castro, I'm from southern MN originally and my family is still there. I do avoid going there in the winter though!

So, the hour is finally here for me to do something while we're still in prime planting season. I've thought about it some more and want to run some more ideas past you good folks.

I'll replace the Rose of Sharon with a medium/small tree like a CM or maybe an Anacacho Orchid Tree.

For the rest of the sunny bed, I'm leaning toward a mass planning of one type of plant. I was originally thinking MX Bush Sage, but I think they may get a little too big. I'm leaning toward Henry Duelberg Sage, Cherry Sage, Rock Rose and Jerusalem Sage. Yes, any of them can catch trash, but I think none of them will be as bad as the Yucca. I think the Duelberg sage may be the easiest to clean because of it's growth habit. The downside is that it dies back in the winter. No matter which I use, I'll space them enough to walk between them so it's hopefully easier to clean. Thoughts on these?

For the shadier beds, I'm leaning toward Katie Ruellia. I haven't quite figured out what to do in the space immediately adjacent to the parking spot.

What do you guys think of a mass planting vs mixing it up? The more I think about it, being that these areas aren't that huge, it seems to me keeping it simple with one thing may be most effective. I'm not a landscape designer by any means though.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far!

Bump

For the small areas (photos 1, 3 and 4), I'd consider Asian jasmine. It's evergreen, xeric, thrives in shade and poor soil, excludes weeds, holds its own against the roots of large trees and does not require mulch. Once it's formed a dense cover, you can sculpt it with a line trimmer a few times a year for a manicured appearance. It coexists with ornamental trees such as yaupon holly, vitex, esperanza or whatever you prefer, in which case you do have to hand-prune the groundcover when/before it starts to climb. I spend maybe 1-2 hours a year performing that task, and I have a lot of ornamental trees. Asian jasmine tends to smother small perennials such as Katie's dwarf, so planting them together might not be a good idea. And yes, I spend a few minutes every week picking out the candy bar wrappers the neighbors' kids add to the landscape (does no one use garbage cans any more?).

I also like salvia lyrata for dry shade,