Oh, I love the combo of the purple echinacea and the grasses...bunny tails?? Also the lamb's ears and yellow daisies. I'm guessing that you will want to keep with the tall theme, as anything else would be overpowered.

If you did gravel and alpines, I think you would need a couple of substantial 'focal point' rocks. Then pea gravel or shale, whichever is cheaper in your area. I would then use colourful alpines as exclamation points. Don't I sound all artsy!!??

I am also changing up a front area, but am not organized enough yet to articluate my desires.

Good luck, I know how damaging septic updates can be, but it is a great opportunity to try something new!!! You'll get lots of ideas here.

Nancy.

Annie,
I looked at your pics and can't figure out what it is you want to change, as everything looks great to me. Are you thinking about taking some of the plants out and moving them around? I'm afraid I'm not very helpful with ideas. Are the two tall flowers in the front mullein?

Sue

Annie, I agree with Sue. When I looked at your pictures I kept thinking how pretty everything was. I like it just as it is so no advice here either.

I too can imagine anything either. Especially cottage garden wise. Perhaps a pathway to the front steps?

Libby

It doesn't look like a prairie! I don't live in your zone, so I don't know enough about the plants there. If you want a gravel path, I think that would be pretty. Perhaps the red/purple gravel?

Your flowers are beautiful!
Cameron

Hey, Annie - are you confused yet???

Maybe you should move your question over to the Landscape Design Forum - I'll keep looking to see the question!!

Nnancy

Annie,

I think what you have looks great too. I'm no expert but this is what I would do:

To create your path, lay a couple of garden hose down to figure out what looks best - which you are lucky enough to be able to curve around your existing plantings. Make the path wide enough that it reduces enough of the lawn and keep in mind what will make mowing easy. You can edge your existing plantings with stone to reduce more grass. Make the beds larger than you might think you need since you don't want them to look spotty.

You can mulch the beds with newspaper and compost (to kill the grass around your lovely plantings) and later add some low growing plants to fill in for low maintenance.

I wouldn't do wild flowers as they haven't been low maintenance for me, at least not in the long run. I wouldn't plant ivy either since it climbs everything. Maybe some hellebores in the shady parts - they are evergreen, bloom in late winter, and are tough as nails here in my zone 7b.

The cooler weather of fall and the milder days of winter are a good time to work on something like this. I wish I lived nearby and I could help you but I think you're off to a beautiful start already.

Hope this helps.

Thanks everyone.

Okay, the pictures showing the house are what is there, except for the roses (Red Blaze & pink and white Fairy roses) on the fence (not shown), with tall Bridleswreath spirea bushes and a Forsythia with old-fashioned Day lilies. It is so dry along there. This year I added a small white Rose of Sharon.
The other FLOWER pics on the entry page are just plants I have that I was considering using to add some color to the front yard in Summer and then in Fall.
I would like to plant roses on either side of the front steps to grow up the pillars to mingle with that dark green ivy, but worry about the thorns.
There is a huge buttery-yellow flowering Lady Banks Rose on the south side (right side of the porch).
I would love to add roses out front...shrub roses which are hardier and bloom from Spring thru' Fall.
I am going to remove the purple garden phlox on the left (north) side of the porch. It got crowded out by the Nandinas and has become scraggly looking the last few years. Time for a change.
I would like to add a Winterberry shrub out there somewhere, and some pillar-type evergreens, and three Colorado Blue Spruces...maybe some meadow flowers around the spruces and some big rocks. I can get big rocks anytime if I catch the county road grader guy when he goes by. He will push them to my driveway. I just have to get someone to help me move them into the front yard.
Whatever goes out there has to be tough, I can tell you that.

Cameron,
There are many types of prairies. The type most people thik of when they hear the word "prairie" is like the one you see on the old TV series, "Little House on the Prairie". That is the Shortgrass Prairie, which is in the American Savannah. This area where I live in Central Oklahoma is where the Tall Grass Prairie changes to Hardwood Timberland. This Eco-Region is called, "Cross-Timbers and Southern Tallgrass Prairie"

The Native trees are:

Black Willow (aka Creek Willow or Pond Willow)
Blackjack Oak
Post Oak
Chinquepin Oak
Red Oak
White Oak
Shumard Oak
Boxwood Elm
Slippery Elm
Bur Oak (introduced)
Hackberry
Cottonwood (I also have 2 large Aspens)
Oklahoma Red Cedar (State Tree)
Oklahoma Redbud
Texas Redbud
Texas Buckeye
Wild plum
Chickasaw Sand Plum (a shrub-like tree)
Mulberry (introduced)
Catalpa (introduced)
Mulberry (introduced)
Paper Mulberry (invasive tree introduced from China)
Persimmon
Osage Orange
Possum Haw
Fringe Tree
Sweet Gum
China Berry (introduced)
Texas Ash
Black Walnut - all I can think of off hand.
Winged Elm (introduced)
Black Haw
Black Hawthorn
Elderberry (a shrub that can get as tall as a small tree)
Red Osier Dogwood
Carolina Buckthorn

Prairie Grasses:

Big Blue stem
Little Blue stem
Inland Sea Oats
Switch grass
Indian Grass (State Grass)
June Grass
Love Grass (introduced)
Muhly Grass
Buffalo Grass
Frost Grass
Eastern Gramma Grass
Side Oats Gramma
Blue Gramma
Woodward Sand Blue Stem
Prairie Sand Reed
Canadian Rye
Panic Grass (introduced)
Tall Fescue (introduced)
Blue-eyed Grass
Foxtail Barley
(There are others, but I cannot recall them now)

Prairie Flowers:

Purple Poppy (aka: Wine Cups)- love these!
Snow-on-the-Mountain
Orange Butterfly weed
Silver-leaf Nightshade (blue flowering)
Clasping-leave Coneflower (yellow w/brown cone - waxy leaves)
Purple Coneflower
Pale Coneflower (Echinacea pallida)
Narrowleaf Coneflower
Gray Coneflower
Purple Prairie Clover
Prairie Dogbane - waxy leaves and purple stems
Stenosiphon (tall growing w/small fuzzy white cone flowers)
Wax Goldenweed
Compass Plant (sunflower-like flowers w/ fern-like leaves)
Ashy Sunflower (very stiff ashy looking leaves)
Wild Quinine (purplish stems w/ tiny white flowers
Joe Pye Weed
Iron Weed (purple flowers)
Yellow Iron weed
Tall Boneset (tiny white flowers)
Daisy Fleabane - tiny white daisies
Carolina Larkspur (tiny plants)
Lanced-Leaf Coreopsis (aka Tickseed) - golden yellow
Plains Coreopsis - golden yellow w/reddish brown centers
Rocky Mountain Bee Balm
Spiderwort
Lemon Mint (Horse Mint) - purple flowers
Wild Four O'Clocks
Blue False Indigo (blue flowers)
Wild Indigo (cream flowers)
Mist Flower - minute purple flowers looks like purple mist
Yellow Gaillardia
Yarrow (white to pale lilac)
Maximillion Sunflower
Pink Primrose
Arrow-leaf Violet
Passion flower (flowering vine)
Yellow Primrose
Gayfeather (purple Liatris)
Dotted Gayfeather (Liatris)
Rough Blazing Star (purple Liatris) - aka: Snake root
Yellow Coneflower aka: Camphor weed
Blue Speedwell
Bitterweed
Flannel leaf Mullein (grow your own toilet paper!)
Mexican Hats
Prairie Rose Gentian
Indian Blanketflower (State Wildflower)
Red Honeysuckle
Yellow Japanese Honeysuckle (introduced)
Blue Mealy Sage
Blue Sage
Cardinal Flower (Red Sage)
Golden Rod (short variety)
Golden Rod (tall and stoleniferous)
Obedient plant
Black-eyed Susans
Brown-eyed Susans
Scarlet Indian Paintbrush
Prickly Poppy (Cowboy Fried Egg Flower)
Wild rose (white rosettes - very fragrant)
Prairie rose - tiny leafed, low-growing 8" plants
False Garlic
Nodding Onions
White Prairie Aster
Purple Rose Verbena
Slim Prairie Aster - blue-violet flowers
Heath Aster
Wild Violet (has triangular shaped leaves)
Leavenworth Eryngo (thistle-like deep purple flowers)
Bull Thistle
Globe Thistle (introduced - I think)
Blue Indigo
Ox-eyed Daisy (one of my favorites)
Buffalo Burr (such a mean ting!)
Partridge Pea (yellow pea-like flowers)
Catclaw - Sensitive Brier (fuzzy pink flowers like a Mimosa)
Shepherd's Purse
Purselane
Gerardia - low growing w/pink buttercup-like flowers
Sow Thistle - similar to a dandelion
Musk Thistle
Spider Milkweed (cool looking green flowers)
Illinois Rattlebox plant
Poppy Mallow (light pink)
Yellow and pink Wood Sorrel
Prairie Ragwort

These wildflowers WERE all growing up in my meadow until the new land owner next door sprayed with Herbicide to kill off "weeds" and native prairie grasses. The wind blew some of that over into my side and then the rains carried the herbicide down the hillside thru' my property. Bye-bye wildflowers. Some how the grasses survived, except for the Love grass which was growing next to the fenceline. (grrrrr)
So I am now reseeding the meadow.

Except for the large native trees and one very old and very large Lilac bush, I planted all the trees, bushes, plants, groundcovers, and flowers in the one-acre yard around the house. The other acre is the meadow up on the ridge. There are two natural wooded areas that border the meadow. A small one on the west side (downhill) and a big one further up the hill on the south site.

Ooops!

I wrote in the above:

"Oklahoma Red Cedar (State Tree)"
------------------------------------
Correction:
Should have read -

"Oklahoma Redbud (state tree)"

BUMP!

I added some ornamental grasses for softness, color and textures, pillar junipers by the entry gate for height and to add a little formality; a spreading juniper in front of the huge Lilac bush, large rocks and the grasses. I am planting a few prairie-type flowers along there for color and to help draw the eye up through there to the front porch. (blanket flowers, black-eyed susans & salvias, etc). The main colors will be bright fall colors of oranges, reds, pinks, purples, browns, yellows and the greens of evergreen trees and shrubs.
I will be adding more large rocks on that slope to serve as anchors for the new foundation plants in the center.
The foundation plantings by the porch are Nandinas, aka "Japanese Heavenly Bamboo", which is very tolerant of the hot, dry conditions on the west side. They are evergreen and have beautiful bright red berries all winter. I love their airy leaf shapes (I love adding elements of the natural garden forms of Japanese gardens).
I planted a weeping willow near the ivy-covered garden gate (on the north side) to provide shade, texture and provide it's cool ambiance to the hot front yard. My dogs will be happier too when they go out to play and go potty.
I planted two Sugar Maples in the lower area to provide leaf color, textures and more shade.
The center will remain the cool, green grass.
I will be adding at least one Colorado Blue Spruce that will add texture, color and be an anchor. If I plant it near the leach lines on the north side it will get enough moisture when we are having dry spells, like it is now.
I am having to water EVERYTHING like crazy right now. No rain in our area although it is raining just north of here. It is super dry and the ground is as hard as a rock.

I will take progressive pictures to show how it all comes together as time goes by.

Annie

Sounds very well-thought out. I will be waiting for pictures.

I am never very inspired like you seem to be.

We are miserably dry here too. I am only watering newly set plants and the mums...let my favorite dark red get too dry and the base is very brown and ugly looking.

Very gray and overcast again today. It has been so for the past several days, but no rain. Just hot and humid as heck. It rained like crazy just 20 miles north of here. We were there at a friend's when it hit. What a storm! That was the only place in the state that got any rain - so weird. Just a tiny pocket.

I am watering in the newly planted things. Gave them all a dose of Miracle Grow as it helps prevent, or reduce at least, transplant shock.
My kittens think I planted that grass for them. Brats! They keep getting in it and rolling and eating the grass. Great fun romping on the big rocks and jumping into the middle of my ornamental grasses. Little stinkers! I've been spraying them with the garden hose and today I have not seen them in there.
All my plants are small, so it doesn't look like much now, but it will in a year or so. I can't afford to buy big trees, shrubs, or grasses. So...I will wait.

~ Annie