Make a ridge or series of mounds 4-6 above grade (after settling) to deal with the moisture problem. Pink Gruss an Aachen is notably shade-tolerant. It makes a dense shrubby small plant that would look nice in a hedge-like row. The old-fashioned flowers are pretty and suitable for cutting. I doubt it would reach 3' wide in zone 5. Or instead of the Buck roses that have been suggested, I'd choose Earth Song. Mine wants to be wider than 3', but it is smaller than Carefree Beauty or Country Dancer. It has exceptional disease resistance and strong, fast repeat. I don't know about 4 hours of sun, but it does well with my 5-6 hours.

Thanks for the excellent responses. Currently I can answer these questions. 1) Initially the service entrance voltage was 140 - 141V. Way too high. A transformer supplying power to our unit was changed and readings are now correct. Oddly, at 141V the tripping was just as frequent. I would have thought higher voltage would have lowered the Amps drawn, and there would have been less frequent tripping. Can this high voltage (for a couple of months during construction) have caused the breakers to become prone to tripping? Voltage is now correct at both ends of the run. No run is longer than 75 feet or so from the main panel. 2) I kept the nature of the equipment back as it might cloud the issue a bit. Yes there is an inrush as this is studio flash equipment. That being said, there is no problem using this gear anywhere else in the city (I have been). Even the 15A on the stove is fine, but even a 30A SqD trips repeatedly. The units plug in with standard 16GA cords. I have changed the cords to 15' 14GA heavy-duty high-visibility (orange and black) cords mostly for visibility. The equipment repair technician says a transformer charges capacitors and only basic switches and so-on are between the line-in and the transformer. No capacitors directly connected to the line-in. There is a 'slow' setting (or gentle) on the unit for situations where the units must work on non-dedicated circuits that already have significant loads on them. This 'slow' setting trips as often as the normal setting. Again, they work everywhere else (on normal setting), even the stove outlet. 3) Counterfeit: I compared a breaker to the photos in the article. #C is not identical. Most of my tab is exposed, not 1/2 as pictured otherwise they match. 4) Multi-wire branch: I think so, 1 Neutral for 2 circuits. A single unit can trip a breaker or several units at the same time can trip 1 or more breakers in no particular pattern. My previous set-up was 12GA 3-wire BX cables with 2-20A sharing 1 neutral with no issues. 5) The breakers are QO type HACR 20A. 6) An ammeter was put on the units. There is a very brief peak over 20A. It measures between 28 to just over 30A. There was some talk about this brief peak measurement being unreliable for an exact figure. A cheaper meter read anywhere from 20A-38A. A better quality Fluke was typically under 25A. The 30A SqD trips with the same frequency as 20A so simply swapping to 30A (even in the short term) isn't an option. Thanks for your knowledgeable responses and effort to help with this. Tom

Caroleb - do you know where that green braided rug is from? In looking at all of these more closely I think some are too much of an aqua blue and some are too much toward a lime green. That one looks closer to the right color. Now I'm working on options where I can either get a sample or no cost return. Haven't decided if I want one bigger rug or two smaller ones on each side of the bed. I ordered a sample of this one and a couple others. I'd rather have a rag type if I can find one but I love this company and they send free samples and have a huge range of sizes. Braided rug

Not what you were envisaging perhaps, but I could see a jolly row of one of the shorter sunflowers there while you think about a more permanent solution. It's a very narrow bed so not much in the way of shrubs would fit.