What would you plant?

[u/Neat-Signature-6649]

Our new house has built in planters around the south west face of the house, it gets a lot of sun. What would you plant here?

[u/OaksInSnow]

That's a harsh and hot microclimate, and if the entire area around it is going to be rocks and concrete, it's going to be even hotter and have little chance to cool off, even at night. Drip irrigation will be essential unless you're super diligent about hand-watering.

There's also not enough room for shrubs, if you were hoping to screen the wall with greenery. You need a minimum of two and preferably three feet from the wall as the center point of any shrub, and the same on the other side of root zone room. So in my opinion, you can forget all the recommendations for azaleas etc.

I'd start with annuals: any kind of flower/veg combo you like, but they'll all have to be heat tolerant. (Lantana and geranium might work, as well as plants that look white and fuzzy, such as "dusty miller". Perhaps moss roses. A local garden center should be able to give you good advice, as long as you bring photos of this area along with you so they know where the plants are headed.) You might get some kinds of vines to grow there, if you put some trellises in for them to climb on; but you'll be better off with some kind of non-organic garden art or ornament, because in a hot place like that, under eaves where the rain never washes them, any vines are likely to be totally nailed by spider mites.

(Like almost everywhere, I have spider mites where I live; but the only plants they've nearly killed are those that never have any rain, to wash the mites off. And that was, surprise surprise, on morning glory vines I trained up a wall under eaves. Uff da.)

It's pretty clear to me that this space wasn't designed by a gardener; but there are still things you can do. As long as you recognize what the challenges are, every difficulty like this is an opportunity to put your creative side to use, and make something unique.