Hi there - thanks all for the feedback - I have kept the grass pretty high based on some advice from my neighbor - he mentioned the same thing AgroCoders stated: that the tall fescues are meant to grow pretty tall (hence the name I guess :) ) maybe 3-4 inches and can lay flat, which is sort of why I was inquiring as to why it was dying...I did cut the grass again since posting keeping it at about 3 or 4 inches. Actually, the grass has gotten worse now too...the parts in the middle that were yellow are now pretty much dead...The grass does look like it was matted - it could have been because of the rain too. I mean the too much water theory could be true, but I would be surprised - I couldn't really control the storms and rain that rolled through for about a week straight :). Regarding the fertilizer - yeah, that could have been some misleading information from both the seed (Pennington) and fertilizer (Scotts) manufacturers - they both stated the conditions for spreading and I followed those accurately. I actually just lightly spread on fertilizer to this newly grassed area, but perhaps I didn't give enough time from my previous fertilizer application and also I am sure the weed/feed itself didn't help. I would think all the water we got would actually help wash out the fertilizer though if that were the culprit. I don't know if it will rebound at this point or not - even though it's dense shade I am starting to wonder if just the total lack of sun, minus a few tiny parts, is the culprit after all...Or just a perfect storm of my misconceptions of fescue (letting it get too high, getting wet, spreading an ill-advised fertilizer, and lack of sun). Oh, and to the comment on the shade mixtures: Dense Shade mix: Virtue II Tall Fescue Rebel Xtreme Tall Fescue Razor Red Fescue Survivor Chewings Fescue Tall Fescue Mix: Justice Tall Fescue Rebel XLR Tall Fesuce Rebel Xtreme Tall Fescue Virtue II Tall Fescue Note: I only spread the Dense shade mix at the bottom of the land (where there is the most dense shade) and the tall fescue mix is pretty much covering all the rest. The grass seems to be dying right in the middle - it does run down hill, so maybe all the rain we got matted the grass -it stayed wet for several days and then just died...too many theories. Attached is a picture today - we had another storm last night, after about 2-3 days of really hot 80-90 degree weather (without rain), but I did water when it seemed dry (one day). Thanks All! Any advice on helping it rebound? Usually light rain + sun helps, but I will be missing that whole sun component in dense shade so it could be bon voyage for my grass.

I've never seen "can be rejuvenation pruned" as part of the definition for a shrub. Some other types of shrubs don't lend themselves to this treatment, anyway. To me, a conifer, that grows to the height of what most of us think of as a shrub, is as much of a shrub as a forsythia or a viburnum. Conifers can be trees, shrubs, or groundcovers. I think Ken is the only person I've seen differ on that point. But hey, he can still be my buddy even if he doesn't know a shrubs a shrub (-; Ken, I don't have a list of junipers that do well here, but I think most do. Of course, virginiana grows like a weed on crack here. Most of the various junipers I've planted seem to do great. The only ones, that come to mind, that don't do as well here as I would like are the blue stars and closely related cultivars. They tend to die out a little in spots (not sure how unique that is to this climate). Someone today recommended using a cotoneaster for my application. I don't know why I hadn't considered it in this situation, but now I'm kind of leaning towards that direction. My customer is supposed to see what she thinks of cotoneaster tomorrow. I'm still open to conifer suggestions though. In additions to the low-growing form (if I end up using conifers for this job), they'll need to have a more needle-like foliage instead of the scaly foliage on many junipers.

The rose bush you want is The Fairy. I also have rescued dogs and I have a beagle mix that has done hundreds of dollars of damage to my garden digging. She won't mess with The Fairy though. It's a beautiful low sprawling bush that bursts with pale pink flowers all summer and fall. She has about a billion really mean thorns. Shes a landscape rose and keeps those thorns low and dense. Better yet she will put down babies that take root and grow where her branches touch the ground. Fortunately she is almost disease free and you don't have to prune her. She's shade tolerant, thrives on neglect and did I mention that she's almost constantly in bloom from June until hard frost? Since she's low you can put her in front of climbers to fill out the area. Cassie is also an escape artist and I had her microchipped. I would suggest you do the same (along with an identification tag.) That way if the little darling gets out you have a good shot at getting her back.' Here is a link that might be useful: The Fairy Rose

"just think when your kids are past the slide stage you can put another island bed right on that spot" bluespruce Funny you should mention an island bed. That's my next project. The 'Whitespire' Birch to the left of the new bed in the second to last pic is going, and the new bed will extend from its spot to the Picea pungens 'Bizon Blue' to the left of it. The slide in the picture is my neighbor's, but we have one too. It's on the only flat spot in my whole yard and is the future site of a Koi pond. The triplets just turned 5, so it's at least another 5-7 yrs. out.Thanks for the compliment. I really appreciate it. "It looks like you worked your rear off on this project. It is almost as much work mentally making something like this come together as it is a physical challenge" Dave The most frustrating part of the project was having to do it a few hours at a time. I usually like to knock these things out on an at-home vacation in a few days. Next project will definately be during a vacation. It's alot more relaxing that way. Thanks for the nice comments. T. I like Sempervivums too. Good suggestion. Thanks, Dan