24?! that's not a path, that's a country mile! every year, I buy ONE of the black-leaf varieties. one. in a 4" pot. plant it the very end of april in the protected corner of the back garden. the third week of may, it's usually put out enough growth that some of it's starting to root itself. I snip off these little bits, pot them up for a week, and plant them elsewhere. the second round of pruning gets given to friends for their hanging pots. a single rooted cutting can easily cover a 5x5' plot.

Great Plains, here is that same photo with some IDs attached. It's amazing when I study it, how different it is now. This photo is probably the best it ever looked. In reality it was a re-seeding nightmare. Yarrow and blue fescue were taking over everything, and it just looked like a mess most of the time. The Karl Foester plants got sooo huge and even the once-per-year cutting back was a big chore. And there were zero shrubs to anchor the scene and provide some order. So I've kept the well-behaved grasses, added masses of coneflowers (most of which have planted themselves at this point), allowed well-behaved self-seeders (penstemon, blue flax, ratibida, some catananche), and added a lot of shrubs. I took out 100% of the yarrow and blue fescue because they can't seem to exist in moderation. I can imagine that you would have great luck with penstemon. I sure do love them in all their forms and colors. Before you get too excited about coneflowers (echinacea) beware that they drink a lot of water. More than I thought. But I still love them so they will stay, and in time they will be pushed out by the shrubs and there won't be quite so many. Are the photos you posted with the blue adobe house in the background your place? It's fantastic and so regionally appropriate! A garden in these parts must have ornamental grasses if you ask me!

Thank you, Ken. The crummy weatherpeople have been promising rain, rain, rain, and it hasn't materialized until today. I hear "It's gonna rain today, severe storms", I don't schedule watering into my routine. I have been watering about every other day. Today it actually rained! That was good for the garden, but not so good for my planned project of installing some concrete edgers and filling the space up with soil to make level the place I planted a beautiful Neon Flash spirea yesterday. The Neighbor's Plot is level, then suddenly drops off at the northern edge, into a small hill. I needed that spirea right where I put it, in order to block the glaring sun that has been sneaking through the gap between my building and the next. So, I need to stack and cement the edgers. But not in the rain! I don't think rain is in the forecast tomorrow, and I (huff! puff! ouch!) carried 6 heavy concrete edgers, a big bag of mulch and a big bag of topsoil from my car to the wall of my building nearest the garden. Hopefully, next year the sun scorched heuchies will not catch the wrath of rays thanks to the spirea.

Sedgehammer is labeled for turf and woody ornamentals. It would probably damage the Liriope. I have used it in turf and it works really well. They also have a supplemental label for Horsetail control. I believe that yellow nutsedge has sterile flowers so it won't reseed. It does have nutlets which are like little bulbs and are incredibly persistent. Check out the next plant you pull and you should see the nutlets forming on the tips of the roots.