It is nice to read this thread and realize I'm not the only one who moves stuff around a lot! I have mixed borders of perennials, annuals, and grasses that have kind of a backbone of a few shrubs and small trees. The shrubbery is very carefully placed for spacing, sunlight, privacy, and wind-screen. I usually plan for a long time what I'm going to plant and where to put them because they just seem more permanent. Even then I end up moving stuff!! This past spring I decided the Miss Kim lilac needed to move six feet over and that I was digging out a 45 year old Burning Bush and replacing it with a Serviceberry, etc. As for perennials and grasses, they usually get planted somewhere but then I'll end up moving them around based on how they grow. Then some get too big and need to be divided and then you have to decide where divisions are going. I've already got lots of trasplanting planned for next Spring. :) PS to Wonbyhermits, that is a lovely plan - does it work well (well, aside from the poor Gardenias)?

I would try to move them while the weather is still cool-ish. I think they will recover better that way. I don't think you need to amend the area. Good luck!

Hello, I'm new here, I guess this conversation is about a week old--but it interested me. I was thinking-- there is such a huge emphasis on trying to make things the way they were 'natively' or in the past when it comes to plants. Sometimes it seems almost as if planting anything perenial would be 'naughty' somehow. Funny, cuz to me, life isn't about anything if it isn't about change and adapting to whatever comes at you next. And that has been my experience all along. I kind of admire those plants that have made themselves at home in strange places. Also-- going back to the day the world began-- who knows what was native then? I live in a new construction area in North Dakota. The land around me is prairie--I have no idea if it is truly native--likely its been beet fields for awhile prior to my moving here, and was prairie long before that. There aren't exactly bison roaming nearby anymore either, but I do enjoy seeing the giant bunnies and I have found it fascinating to learn about the weather and widlife here in my new home. I am a wisconsin woodland transplant myself. For years I was happily used to the woodsy beauty of my old home--trilliums, jack in the pulpits etc.. Suddenly last fall I came to a place that is all flat, with bright sunshine and wind almost all the time. At first I really didn't know if I would like this. But when spring came and I began to smell the absolutely beautiful perfume in the air and hear all the birds singing--I was thrilled. Now I am hoping they will not cut down all the 'prairie/weeds' in our neighborhood where houses are popping up like weeds on every empty field, so I can keep on smelling and hearing and seeing them. Looking at the weeds here--I don't know how many are native but I'm not native either and I think we'll be happy together. I am considering putting a few of them in my garden--there's a couple of grasses I really like and I found a fabulous looking vetch with some kind of yellow rattle looking flower. I never thought I'd learn to love land that was flat as a pancake--but I like it here and am learning to appreciate the prairie. I hope I won't be too invasive though. ;-)Maryt

I think that you are going to have a wildflower garden that includes some of the grass that was there before you planted. There is probably no way to get rid of it now, and even if you did, it might just move in later. you'll have to accept this, which means you don't have to worry about pulling up all the grass. I would instead try to make sure that really noxious weeds are kept out, and keep pulling larger weeds or trailing grasses which seem ot be crowding out wildflowers. Things like Canada Thistle, Spotted Knapweed, and similar invasive plants that could really take over should be killed. You can pull out the larger clumps of grass, but probably most of the wildflowers will be able to coexist with grass pretty well. I am assuming that the grass is one of the common exotic pasture or lawn grasses - orchard grass, timothy, etc. Eventually you should be able to have a mix of wildflowers, some grasses, and some weeds that still gives you the look and feel of a prairie despite the presence of some non-natives. Keep in mind that it would be almost impossible to have zero non-natives. You are instead trying for a balance that includes all the flowers you want and not too much stuff that you don't want.