Kurchian.... I cringe when I read of someone's desire to replace weeds and grass with invasive plants. I understand the desire to have something grow without care and provide color and interest, but I haven't heard of anyone who has managed to do that yet. :-) Since I have had more than one battle with unwanted invasives over the years and have read many posts on the forums describing other people's exhausting battles with these type of plants, I can hardly think of a situation in which a property would be 'improved' by adding some of these plants. Once you have them on your property, it seems they rarely actually become an asset but instead, they find a way to become a liability not only to you, but sometimes to your neighbors as well. Then when you try to get rid of them...look out. If you have a 'contained' area, like between a street, a driveway and a concrete walkway and a building. That is to say something immovable on every side...this could be considered an area that might be safe to plant some invasives to battle it out and hopefully create an area that might take care of itself. But even then, you still have to be careful what you plant because birds and wind can take the seeds into areas off your property. Mint and Lily of the Valley are two plants I have heard have been known to travel under concrete walkways and show up in the grass on the other side. I had a landscape architect here giving advice once and when I expressed a desire to grow blackberries, he laughed. Since I have a small 1/4 acre property, he suggested that I would need concrete barriers that went down three feet into the ground all around where I was going to plant it, or it would take over our property and be a huge problem to get rid of. Mowing grass and weeds once a week, is a piece of cake compared to battling some of these invasive plants once you have them and they start traveling where you don't want them, or they don't perform the way you want them to and you want to remove them. So...what can you do with this area that you describe as 150 ft from your house, that is about 100ft x 200ft and gets sun until 2pm? Well, it sounds like a great adventure to create something there, but important to know ahead of time what you are getting into. Not quite sure if you are trying to end up with a garden that you would actually care for, or something like a meadow effect? I would start small and try some ideas and see how they do and then duplicate what works out best in other areas. Or start with a complete plan for the whole area, but break it down into smaller parts and go slowly until you get an idea how things are working out. Trees and shrubs are a great idea for a larger area. If you spend some time investigating, you could come up with a list of them that would give you all season color and interest. You might consider trying a small area for a butterfly garden. Many of those plants will colonize in a respectable manner and are native plants that spread and fill in fairly quickly. Joe Pye Weed, Asclepias, Butterfly Bush to name a few. Coneflowers and Rudbeckia with Monarda, Grasses and Sedums can take care of themselves pretty well. The Asclepias will reseed, the Monarda will spread more than any others. If you are careful to add clumping grasses, rather than runners, you can choose anything that appeals to you and add some perennials and instant easy care garden. Cosmos is an annual that in my Massachusetts garden, comes back on it's own every year and is a welcome addition to my sunny garden beds. I don't know if you have ever visited Garden in the Woods, in Framingham, but I highly recommend it. They are always trying to establish plantings that take care of themselves in many different conditions. Not only would you be able to see for yourself what they have been able to achieve, but they sell plants and can give you lots of advice too. Below is a link to one of the threads on this subject that has already been referred to. I see there is also a Part 2 as well, with another 128 posts. [g] Good luck! :-) pm2 Here is a link that might be useful: What do you Wish you never planted?

TJ, You may already be completely aware of this, but just in case you're not, invasiveness doesn't necessarily correspond to what you can see in your own yard. In other words, a plant could be extremely invasive (environmentally damaging by displacing native flora and fauna) and still not express serious aggressive tendencies in your yard. Seedlings could be eating your neighbors woods up without appearing in your own yard. Aggressive plants are not necessarily invasive (even if exotic), and invasive plant don't always appear (at least in the immediate vicinity of the plant) aggressive. The only reason I mention this is because you said that's what you had been "seeing". I'm not saying I think you have anything to worry about in the case of this species.

So groundcover then...again, not really a problem. pratia, mazus reptans, campanula portenschlagiana, dianthus, phlos diviricata, pflos subulata, thymes (many and varied), erigeron karvinskianus, lysimachia nummularia. However, the thing about the rocks is the size - they are just too big and dispersed to see them as a rockery feature...and there is something very redolent of the 70s about it all (and if conifers and heathers are added, we would be absolutely in a time warp...but that could be amusing). As many have pointed out, there are NO perennials which remain in bloom for months and months on end - it just cannot be - they are following a cycle of life and reproduction. Smaller shrubs, at least hand on to foliage...and some, such as the gorgeous sorbus reducta, are worthy of a place in a garden for year round beauty but yes, there are some diverse elements there which are hard to reconcile. As for doing what the owner wants...well no...that isn't how gardening works. No amount of money or petulence will change the life-cycles of plants unless they are of the florus plasticus type. And I think it has also been mentioned, less is more. Having a great variety of plants, in an already cluttered scenario (I have my reluctant design hat on here) is just an ache for the eyes - better to have a couple of confident selections which are planted en-masse.

I am doing a total overhaul of the yard this year and learning about ornamental shrubs in the process. ==>>> location usually helps ... if i might be so bold ... you might want to spend the summer observing and learning... removing weeds .. but plan on moving perennials and shrubs in fall ... to avoid losses in the heat of summer ... its not that it cant be done in the heat of summer.. its just much forgiving for the newb to time it out to the proper season to move things... see link.. first section ... https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub need a closer pic on the shrub ... without the sunshine back lighting it ... ken