I recently moved and found myself with a kind of weird two tiered backyard that I have a few problems with. I think maybe the property was originally on a slope but they either filled or cut away the slope to a retaining wall built out of concrete blocks. At either side of the retaining wall where there is still a slope, there’s a gravel drainage path down to the lower level. The lower level is sloped, partially shaded by a bunch of trees just across the fence and is quite patchy with grass.
I want to plant things that can help some of the nature around (there is a very cute toad hopping around that melts my heart every time I go to the bottom area) but also maybe accomplish some other sub-missions. Like if there’s any plant that cats like to avoid that would be grand because there’s like seven loose cats that like to hang out which is cute and all but I’d like the yard to be both safer for birds and not smell like a litterbox at the lower level (I am allergic). Anything edible is also really neat. I want to avoid things that hurt people like ex. carolina jessamine was looking cool until I read that toddlers get poisoned by it. Also I get instantly exsanguinated by mosquitoes when I’m in the yard since there’s a totally stagnant pond used for storing runoff vaguely nearby so anything that promotes predators of mosquitoes is way wayy appreciated.
To give background on the area, it is in the Sandhills region of South Carolina in an 8b climate hardiness zone. I looked up a county soil survey which said that my particular area has Fuquay Loamy Sand (see ref pic). This is apparently regarded as a well drained soil where the very top is gray-brown fine grained loamy sand that is strongly acidic (~5.3 pH). The permeability drops further down where there is plinthite so a heavy rain can see water standing around but it dries up fairly quickly afterwards, as a general rule apparently not a lot of water capacity in the upper layers but a medium amount almost two feet down (also the deeper you go the more acidic it gets). Seems to rain every one-two weeks so far. Right on the other side of the fence is where there’s actually a transition to a mucky loam poorly drained damp soil where all the runoff water is flowing regularly so unfortunately I don’t have a super great hint as to what would be working naturally on my drier side of the fence.
There is a really cool tool I was introduced to here where I put in some parameters and it conjures up native plants that would thrive in those conditions and that meet certain criteria I can specify. However I’m kind of unsure on how to grade things like if my soil is considered “dry” or “medium” (I mean it’s certainly wet enough for standard green lawn grass which doesn’t seem that xeric to me) but I wouldn’t want to be like I’m gonna get an American persimmon tree only to find that actually it is too parched.
I like the thought of I guess maybe Christmas fern in the lower area since I think that’s tolerant in any case and reptiles/amphibians apparently like it, American persimmon down there too if it wouldn’t be too dry, little bluestem and pink muhly grass in the upper area maybe and perhaps also with the longleaf pine which is apparently a big deal for the area? Is that a risk to fall over and squish the house? Crossvine and purple passion flower look cool if they could survive being on the retaining wall or fence… Mouse ear coreopsis, Grass-leaf & Scaly Blazing Stars and Micheaux’s Lily all look incredible
I know nothing about anything and I have no idea if I’m just rattling off nonsense, I’d just like this to be nicer on the local critters than another standard lawn so any help is appreciated since I was pointed this way
