Dear Vinny, Step by step instructions are as follows for enlarging the bed: 1. Take a hose, electric cord or contractors flags and outline new bed outline. 2. Then using spray paint in a color that stands out like yellow, outline the bed. There's also contractors spray paint that comes in dayglo orange or yellow but usually I pick the cheaper spray even if it's a little harder to see. 3. Using a sharp spade carefully cut a trench approximately 3 - 4 inches deep and 4 - 6 inches wide. You're basically cutting out a strip of sod around the entire bed, shake off soil and then discard. This serves two purposes - cutting the grass roots and preventing the roundup from being absorbed into the surrounding grass and keeping the mulch in and out of the grass later. 4. Once the temperature is at about 60 degrees, spray interior of bed with roundup (glycophosphate). This is a non-selective herbicide so be careful to cover any perennials you wish to save with a plastic bag or dig them up and replant later. This herbicide will kill anything green it touches so be careful not to get onto the surrounding lawn or perennials. A nice non-windy day works best. In 2 - 3 weeks the grass within the bed should be good and dead. 5. Plant or replant right into the dead turf. This will become compost later. Mulch with a minimum of 2-3 inches of good quality mulch. I recommend shredded pine bark or hardwood mulch. Other good choices (although a little more expensive) are cocoa or pecan shells. I never recommend using cypress or shredded cedar as these are being harvested from vulnerable natural areas that are still recovering from past over harvesting. 6. Repopulate or add native plants to your area. Good examples which like full sun and poor drainge are: Queen of the Prairie (Filependula rubra), Red Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), Marsh Blazing Star, Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis), Obedient Plant, Nodding Onion, (Allium cernuum), New England Aster (Aster novae-anglaie) Joe Pye Weed (Euphorbia maculatum), Mistflower (Euphorbia coelestinum), Ironweed (Veronia), Sweet Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia subtometosa), Big BlueStem Grass., Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale), False Sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides), Culver's Root (Veronicastrum virginicum), Mountain Mint(Pycnanthenum virgianum), Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), Orange Coneflower (Rubeckia speciosa), Yellow Coneflower (Ratibita pinnata) These plants will take full sun and some of the worst soils, many with poor drainage. You may have to contact a native nursery to procure. I would save my money and not plant dianthus. That plant requires the exact opposite soil conditions to what you have - fast-draining, loose soil (i.e gritty, gravelly soil). If you stick to less picky perennials that are tolerate of these type of soil conditions you will not have berm, rototill or add new compost or soil. Good Luck

I've struggled with finding "showy" flowering shrubs for full sun too. I wanted mostly evergreen initially, but I've ended up with a mix of evergreen and deciduous as so many of the deciduous shrubs have really beautiful flowers. You have a big enough area that you could have a good amount of evergreen and mix in a few deciduous. This is what I currently have (all planted this year, so I can't comment on how well they will do over time), with a couple of things that are on their way mail-order from Lazy S'S that i will plant soon: EVERGREEN: Abelia Rose Creek, Canyon Creek, Mardi Gras, Little Richard (mine have done fine so far in full sun from 9am-6pm. The flowers are not as showy as azaleas or rhodies, but they do flower for ages) Loropetalum Purple Diamond, Purple Pixie, Ever Red and others (i love these, such hot pink flowers against the purple leaves) Viburnum tinus "Spring Bouquet" (slow growing but pretty early spring flowers) Azalea Formosa, Sunglow and George L Taber (i planted these last winter before i realized I had full sun. They did fine this year, but I am concerned that they might not continue to do well) Hypericum Albury Purple (St Johns Wort, yellow spring flowers) Ceanothus thyrsiflorus (blue spring flowers, this is mail-order so I have not planted yet) Callistemon Woodlander's Red (bright red bottlebrush-like flowers, mail-order too so not planted yet but I am very excited about it!) DECIDUOUS: Itea Virginica Henry's Garnet and Little Henry (these are fantastic, great reddish fall color now) Spirea Neon Flash (very pink!) and Little Princess Weigela Ruby Queen (purple leaves and pink flowers) Caryopteris Dark Knight and Longwood Blue Callicarpa americana (fantastic purple berries now) Vitex Agnus-Castus (will grow tree-sized, buddleia-like blue flowers) Fothergilla Mt Airy (white bottle-brush flowers) Cotinus Grace Japanese Maple Sambucus nigra Black Lace (almost black leaves and pink flowers, this is coming mail-order so not planted yet)

I'm too far away to help in person but can send seeds for wildflowers. The gaillardia in my yard grows with absolutely no water (and we've had NO rain). It is as no maintenance a plant as imaginable but very cheerful. here it's growing in the driveway and since then jumped up on top of the wall into my neighbors yard which is pure sand. I can also send black-eyed susan seeds but these will take longer to bloom, maybe next year. But they do last a very long time once they get going. LMK Denise

Hi Nashonii! You need to stop and chat with us more often. Wish I could answer your question. Maybe you could start a new thread so more people would see it. Does Fayetteville have a Master Gardeners organization? They might keep track of events.