Hi Hannah, That link didn't work for me, could you try again? Are you in the northeast as well? I had a bunch more of it that I pulled out, but decided to leave one just in case it was something pretty. Until this weekend, it was all swamped by this year's Forget-me-nots, anyway.

Unfortunately I am in the process of removing my japanese barberry and replacing it with New Jersey tea shrubs because of my concerns about the invasiveness of the barberry. I wish it wasn't the case because I do like the little things (and digging out a thorny shrub isn't easy) but I feel it is the right thing to do when there is a chance that letting the barberry stay is harming the environment. Just because you don't see the plant spreading in the nearby landscape doesn't mean that birds aren't possibly eating the seeds and spreading it to nearby forests or other natural areas. There are a lot of very pretty plants that are at least not potentially invasive, if not native, that could replace it. The article I am linking to this post has this comment on the issue: >> Mark Brand, professor of ornamental horticulture, Plant Science and Landscape Architecture Department, University of Connecticut, does genetic studies on feral barberry plants to determine their source. He especially looks for purple parentage. DNA fingerprinting of old, invasive populations of barberry originally showed meager evidence of purple barberry contributing genes to wild plants. "We did find a little bit but it didnÂt seem as though these populations were largely produced by the purple leaf types," he says. In another sample, however, parentage analysis of the genetics showed that plants had indeed spread from an old purple plant in an old landscape. "That study did show that a large, old, established, standard-sized purple plant could contribute seedlings to surrounding unmanaged areas." Ehrenfeld likens low levels of long-distance seed dispersal to a still-humongous 1% microbial resistance to anti-biotics. "In Highland Park, every third house has a barberry hedge. If we were adjacent to a natural area and even if only one percent of those seeds were moving into a natural area and only one percent of that had managed to germinate, thatÂs still substantial, especially because there is so much effective dispersal thatÂs local with bushes spreading out vegetatively and seed dispersal thatÂs local. Here is a link that might be useful: Article about barberry's invasiveness

Thanks for the suggestions! We don't like grasses in the yard, especially after helping our neighbor get rid of some really, really invasive grass that Urban Gardener planted in their yard this past year. We have a lot of shrubs in the area already, and are looking for something more low-lying (less than 2"-8" tall) to fill in. I've never really had a thing for mondo grasses, but we all have our loves :) Between the three spreaders/clumpers above (veronica, epimediums, partridgeberry) we should be able to work something out to cover at least 60-70% of the area in question, which would mean 60-70% less weeding, and something to keep the ferns company during the winter when many of the other things have died back. I don't mind spending $$, I'm totally fine with that, but ... I don't want something that is a tiny 6" clump at full size, else we will be seriously spending a thousand dollars buying 200+ plants to fill the bed. Are the three aforementioned species relatively safe to plant near perrenials that die back down to the ground every year and re-sprout, or will they choke those out? If it is not safe, what kind of spacing should I be trying to maintain between these and other plants? (i.e. would the average spread diameter + 6" buffer be adequate?) I am normally really wary of non-native species, seems like most of the common ones are too invasive for my liking, which is why I had to ask. Search was turning up a ton of results, but I couldn't seem to refine it enough to find meaty info. Thanks again for the advice! BTW - Epimedium warleyense and versicolor flowers both look amazing! (see pics halfway down page)

Thanks for sharing this BP. I have been looking into a way to replace my tired, worn out, and crappy looking KBG with something much more suited to our climate. It seems work surrounding the native grass lawns focuses on buffalo and blue grama. Fine grasses (I use a lot of blue grama in my landscaping) but I have always thought that there had to be others. This whole area, as you said, was prairie with a seemingly endless array of choices. The first one the came to mind was western wheat, which grows extensively across the Front Range. The reason it came to mind is because it is a sod forming grass. But it's also very tall and coarse, regular mowing may help make it more "flat," but I have trouble imagining walking across a lawn of western wheat barefoot. Recently we seeded a lot of Canada rye at work, so I started looking into that, too. It's a bunchgrass though, and I'm unsure if consistent mowing forces tillering like it does with blue grama. It's also extremely tall and coarse. The absentee neighbor's lawn has been taken over by smooth brome. It looks gorgeous right now, but when it gets cut, its very "stemmy" rather than leafy. I am also not a huge fan of the fact smooth brome has overtaken most of what's left of the native xeric tallgrass prairie that we have here, forcing out the community of big and little bluestem, switch and Indian grass and turning it into a monoculture. USDA calls Indian grass a "rhizomatus bunchgrass" so mowing might encourage tillering with that. but once again, my main concern is the coarseness and that cutting taller grasses will lead to "stemminess", although, if done regularly, it might not. It's also warm-season however. Another thing is that some grasses don't respond as well to cutting as others. For example, not that it would otherwise make a good turfgrass, but you could not repeatedly mow down little bluestem through the growing season without killing it. I will be looking into the fesuces that you mentioned, they sound promising. Do you know how all these stand up to traffic?