Thanks everyone, here is a picture of the garden near the house. I put in a row of globe arborvitaes. I planted some California poppies, sun flowers, malva, and a few other annuals to fill up the space while the shrubs grow to block out the cement wall. I also planted some tiny mophead hydrangeas, a bunch of cone flowers, and some other perennials to grow to potting size. :) Laura

Quack grass is difficult to eradicate, you may have to use Round up three or more times, spraying anything that remains green every two weeks until nothing remains. start now to make sure all roots are dead by the fall when you hope to plant. Cardinal flower, snake root and blue lobelia do not like full sun. Cardinal flower, lobelia and iris should not be allowed to dry out ever; especially in full sun their soil must be always moist or wet. Blue flag is suited to full sun. Canada anemone grows in partial to full shade, growing in sun will slow it down but I still would not recommend planting it at all unless you plant it as the only species. Plants suited to moist, full sun conditions include Joe Pye Weed, Bidens (beggar ticks), Veronia (Ironweed), Monarda didyma, Turtlehead, bog goldenrod, rushes, cattails and sedges. The Iris seeds may not be viable if they have been allowed to dry out since collection, they are best sown immediately after collection. Sowing after drying out means that germination will be slower, if it happens at all, likely two years. All your seeds need to be cold treated before they will germinate, that is they will need at least two to three months of cold, moist conditions before returning to warmth. You can achieve that by storing them in the fridge in moist vermiculite until the spring and sowing then or by sowing in the ground now and letting Mother Nature do the rest. Scattering the seed on the prepared surface (kill the grass/sedges, don't fertilize or add soil) then covering with a light dusting of sand or fine soil will work. All your plants will produce small seedlings and grow slowly. You will need to mulch them and remove competing weeds for the first year and likely the second year as well. An alternative to sowing in place is to sow into seedling trays around March next year, after the seeds have spent August to March in moist vermiculite in a baggie in the fridge. Place the trays in a sunny window. When the seedlings have true leaves, pot them on into 2" pots filled with good potting soil and keep in bright light for them to grow on. Round Up the ditch again in April and May if anything green appears, then cover it with 4" of mulch or straw (do not use hay, use straw -- hay has seeds). When danger of frost is past in late May or June, plant out the plants. With this method, the plants get a small head start, you know where the plants are so you can pull the weeds and you have mulch in place immediately after using Round Up.

good morning sweetannie, yes, it does sound like paradise to me too - and I would be honored if I were your neighbor to come over and work for free and learn all I could Sigh, that is not to be. You know what is said about Paradise; "they took paradise and put up a parking lot." Of course your neighbors have a right to manage their property, but there may be regulations in your area on impact to surrounding land, check into that. I bought my little semi-rural plot in a teeny-tiny town a year and a half ago. It is sloped, and right at the highest edge are 4 evergreens. They are planted too close to each other... but they were mine, I wouldn't dream of cutting down 4 mature trees unless there were a pressing and logical reason. Well, two had quite a few brown tips and within a year ALL FOUR were dead as the proverbial doornail. I had an expert in to look at them, no - not borers - somebody has poisoned them. He said "someone has poisoned them, likely with copper." I look to the houses on higher ground and try to figure who may have wanted them gone, and who should PAY FOR THEIR REMOVAL, and there are no answers. I've tried posting them as free wood on CraigsList, posted on local bulletin boards, called tree services, etc. I haven't even 1/100th of the land you have, but as I said - it's MINE and I love it desperately already. I have my tiny meadow out back which slopes from my four huge dead brown trees gently down to the house. I've seeded with Crimson Clover, cone flower, and fifteen other wildflowers and I'd seeing tiny results. The neighbors, of course, seem to hate it. They were used to parking two cars on the top edge of it. Pfui. The only one who actually said anything is the house directly across the alley from me. Four dead trees stand between he and I. Ever since he (lightly) complained I have looked at him and wondered, how much did four tall trees and a neglected patch of meadow annoy him? Hmmm? GH-

I agree that none of the plants you are interested in growing are native, and that makes me wonder if they are really host plants for local butterfly species. Most of them are really common in the wild, and I would think any butterfly that uses them as a host plant should be equally common. I would take some time to examine your local wild weeds and see if you can find caterpillars or caterpillar damage on them. If you find none, that indicates that they really aren't a significant host plant. However, any of them should be quite easy to grow. I find English Plantain to be a really fast spreader in the graden and in my lawn, and I would instead consider Common Plantain, which is still a weed but doesn't seem to spread as fast. Red Clover can be a pretty nice addition to a meadow, and is not among the bad weeds around here, at least I don't consider it one. Docks are very hard to remove once planted, so be selective in where you allow them to grow. Same goes for toadflax (aka butter and eggs) which spreads vegetatively and is hard to completely remove - I have tried for years without getting it all. Burdock is the largest of the group. A single plant can spread to a four by four foot size and reach six feet tall, so if you want to grow burdock give it lots of space.