I have a similar problem area in the front of my house. It is a north eastern exposure, and several trees keep part of it mostly shaded. So many things have not worked.
We have terraced steps with about 5 feet of dirt between the steps and the house. surrounded with railroad ties. The dirt is pretty awful and mostly clay. So far, the only things that have survived are winter creeper, boxwood, day lilies, and sub-zero ivy.
At one time, we had a wild ivy that grew quickly and covered the entire front of the bedroom wing of the house. It climbed the brick about 20 feet up and 18 feet wide. It looked great in the summer, but was a lot of ugly brown vines in the winter. It may have been virginia creeper.
We had a basement leak, and the back hoe had to dig up the entire area, and we didn’t even think about trying to save the ivy, till it was too late. Some thought it might have been virginia creeper which is native to Missouri.
Wow, some great suggestions. The area is raised up and had bad dirt. I made hubby dig it out and put good stuff in there. Hopefully, the next plants will actually grow. I’ll have a few nice, cold months to think about it, except for the kudzu. I saw that stuff when we went to Florida one year and what a mess that is. It would freeze here, thank God.
About the squash and stuff not setting fruit. Mine did that earlier this year. After the blight from last year I figured it was a fungus and tried spraying the flowers with blossom set. Did the trick.
Thanks all for the help. Sorry I couldn’t get here to respond until now; had to work.