There are many ferns to contrast with the hostas suggested by amili also heucheras, tiarellas, carexes, solomon's seal for native foliage.For non-native folaige, it's hard to beat Hakone grass. For flowers, the first thing that comes to mind is lobelia cardinalis (red flowers in late summer)or lobelia syphilitica (blue flowers). Another plant to consider is Spigelia which is attractive to hummers as is the lobelia. There is a book published by Timber Press "Native Plants of the Northeast" by Donald J. Leopold that might be helpful to you for native plant suggestions. Pat

Not a weed, but my nemesis for 2009 was stinkhorn fungus. I would gladly, gladly, take any of the aforementioned weeds in exchange for it. It's a perverted-looking fungus that grows from little eggs beneath the soil, and it is damn near impossible to eradicate. Just when you think you've dug it all out, it pops up three feet away. This was happening in an area right by my front door, and when they call it stinkhorn, they're not kidding. The smell is like nothing else. My mom, God bless her, came over one day while I was at work and really went at it hard in that area, digging up hundreds of little eggs and treating with vinegar and baking soda. I didn't see anymore after that. I pray that it's gone. Horrible!

Bindweed is nasty and makes my blood boil. As a farmer I have become very dissatisfied with all the chemicals we use and even then we do not eradicate, only temporarily control. There should be holistic, natural ways to deal with this. Older farmers tell me they used salt to sterilize the soil. Chemicals can sterilize and do this. Of course we want to grow things, not kill them and look at bare ground. I also seen a study that said copper could do this. I would like to put some copper or salt 2 foot down into the soil through a pipe to see if that would work. This is where the roots could absorb this. Do roots need a surfactant like we use when we spray the leaves with chemicals? We have to kill the roots. Any suggestions? Desperate farmer

Kaja, I can relate. I started doing the same thing last week. Although the Ivy up in the trees that I could not reach is wilting, I'm doubtful that it will die as long as we keep getting rain. I'm hoping that when the temperatures get into the high 80's & 90's, it will die. I really feel bad that we let it get to this point. I'm still pulling up vines with roots and some of them are big enough for Tarzan to swing on. LOL I raise Monarch Butterflies and Giant Swallowtails during the summer. I really don't won't to use any kind of herbicide. From what I've been reading here on GW about Ivy, I may have to use something like Roundup to kill it for good. I had no idea the root system for Ivy could get so big. Hopefully, some of the GW experts will chime in and give us some tips. My hands have blisters from pulling up vines with roots and I was wearing 2 pairs of gloves. Our neightbors down the street have Ivy along their long driveway that is taking over the huge wooded area next to their property (It's across the street from us.) That is such a shame and it breaks my heart as I watch it progress up the street...taking over everything it touches. I wish that the owners of that property would do something before it's too late. After the past week of going to battle with this plant, I put English Ivy into the same category with Kudzu. For us, family illness and an accident left the Ivy to just take over for several years. In the future, I will only grow Ivy in a pot. Sorry for going on and on. It's just been such a pain. There's no way that I could bag all of this stuff. I started burning some but with our little fire pit, it would take forever. For now, I'm putting it into big piles and will let the county come pick it up the middle of this week. Anyway, Kaja, I believe the Ivy we cut growing into the trees will eventually die. Let us hope for the best. In the meantime, I feel your pain!