In a previous house in the city, daughter lined her beds with wine bottles and it looked cute. I imagine yours will, too. However, as for the landscape fabric, I have lived in my current house almost 30 years and am still finding plastic in the soil. For a long time I wondered why nothing would grow in certain areas. Then the black started showing. In spite of the problems with weeds, I really like seeing all of the volunteers of Trilliums, bloodroot, spring beauties, etc., in places where they can set seeds and grow. I am in the country and am not really a gardener, just love plants, so I prefer NOT to use products that provide so much control. To each his own, as the previous poster said.

have you asked the contractor what his preference is??? .. perhaps he has dealt with this before ... do keep us posted on how it all works out ... it is basically late in the season ... and even if they damage the upper parts ... they werent going to hang around intact for winter for the most part ... just get the job done.. plus.. the old farmer lament.. there is always next year ... and you note.. there is 3 feet from the house to the plants .. bazinga.. someone who left space at the foundation for house maintenance .....like we havent mentioned that a couple hundred times over the years ... sounds to me.. like you were planning this all along ... ken

I second Amy's suggestions! At my local native plant nursery, Pycnanthemum is the absolute star of the show when it comes to heavy pollinator traffic! It doesn't have the ornamental "wow" factor like some of the aforementioned options, but it's hard to beat in terms of attracting pollinators. One caveat is that P. muticum does need quite a bit more moisture than some of the other Pycnanthemum species. 'Claire Grace' is also one of my favorite Monardas...it doesn't suffer from the mildew issues that plague M. didyma cultivars, handles dry conditions with no problem, and it's also less agressive of a spreader as well!

Thanks for the links. My peonies are only growing from the shoots that were not nibbled and the ones that nibbled aren't growing at all. It just stopped there. I just wanted a plant other than my petasites that has the ability to signal the start of spring. Last year my fiance took me to an arboretum for my birthday in late march and saw an enormous patch(scattered in many areas as well) of winter aconites just emerging from the melting snow and it was the best feeling ever. Not just because they were beautiful but the feeling of the end of the dreading winter and the onset of spring glory... nothing beats that. I guess I will go with adonis since they look a little similar in structure. I originally didn't want to because they look like they spread super slow and I didn't want just tiny spots of yellow in only a few places in my garden. I wanted like a mass groundcover but I'm ok with it now. I might try hepatica too. Hamamelis is also great but I don't know if I have room for such a large shrub. Sah67, as long as it is showing blooms in March at least I am fine with it. I don't want something though, however, that sometimes bloom in late march or sometimes in early april. Like what gardengal says with the mahonia and my ume tree does.