LOL, yes, the other day I dreamed that I had a large koi pond at work and all my koi from home was in it. The pond somehow started leaking, and I arrived at work one day to find all my koi flopping around on the bottom! Horrible dream!

hi james, i have been growing 'shishigashira' since the mid-80's and it is definitely not cascading. after that many years, it is a dense, spreading shrub about 5'x5'. the flowering begins in fall (usually late september in my area) and continues sporadically through mid-winter. i have seen the occasional flower at christmas though the main flowering period is during october-november. during peak, it is a solid mass of small, bright pink flowers over glossy foliage on stiff branches and a fine plant, in my opinion. 'chansonette' has more beautiful individual flowers and my shrub is still young. it is, however, already exhibiting a cascading form at less than 3' in height. it blooms later than 'shishigashira', more into winter here. i can't make a fair comparison of overall merit between these two because of the differences in ages but ,hopefully, 'chansonette' will become a favorite as well. just considering the individual flowers, 'chansonette' wins hands down.

I have a sloped back yard around my pool, which is much more steep than your slope in the pictures, covered in St. Augustine. I too detest lawns, but I have no money right now, so my St. Augustine is here to stay. I water my St. Augustine with an irrigation system on my allotted days and once yearly treat with weed/feed. Yes, my St. Aug is great on bare feet and very healthy looking. I have no problems with maintaining it on the slope. I'm not bragging, I'm just trying to explain that I have personal experience with this situation. I think your first problem is with the underlying sand. My underlying soil is a thick layer of decayed organic material, on top of a thin layer of sand, on top of a thick layer of loose clay. It's clear from your photos that the mower tires are disturbing the St. Aug's growth. That is very easy to do regardless of the underlying soil, but especially easy in sand such as you have. I think your second problem is with your lawn guy. Seriously. And, I mean absolutely no offense. Your lawn is covered in weeds. It didn't happen overnight, although sometimes it might seem that way. Your lawn guy should know (1) how to mow on a slope without destroying the roots, (2) how to point out a weed problem before it becomes a massive weed problem like you have. How convenient for him that you need sod replacement?!?! Isn't his job routine lawn care, not routine lawn destroying and replacement? That being said, I have a cheap temporary solution for you. I see in the first picture, to the left of the hose/brick path, you have a bush/tree surrounded by a small circle of mulch. And, in the second picture, you have another tree just down slope from the pool, surrounded by another small circle of mulch. I would take a sharp straight-edged shovel and cut away shovel sized squares of sod in a circular pattern around those trees. Making much, much larger circles around the trees. Take a section of the sandy/weedy area, cover thickly in newspaper, wet newspaper, then lay your homemade sod squares on top of the wet paper. Water daily until they take root and can survive on their own. Go back and extend the mulched area around the two trees, so your weed problem doesn't extend under the trees. This should really be done in stages, because the sod squares that you cut out and move need to be kept wet during the moving process. I say my solution is cheap, because you can buy mulch for $1.68 at the big box stores these days, and you would probably need 10 bags. Less than $20. Of course you will have a little extra water expense from having to water daily to establish the newly sodded sections. It is a little bit back breaking, but I'm sure you can either do it or find someone to help. I say my solution is temporary because, ideally, you could eventually plant some sort of hearty, Florida friendly ground cover over that entire area. In the long run it will not require as much water or care as St. Augustine, and you can get rid of the expensive lawn guy! Things to remember: Don't put any weed and feed down on the newly sodded sections either immediately before or after laying the sod. Don't forget to water daily until the new sections have taken hold. Especially during this, our driest time of year. If you choose to use RoundUp on the weedy areas before moving the grass squares, don't lay the grass squares directly on the area treated with RoundUp unless you put in a layer of newspaper or cardboard first. If you can get your hands on some liriope, you could make a border along the brick walk (at the top of the slope), to help hold it all together. Their roots tend to spread out rather than down, so it will keep slope erosion in better check. Lastly, don't let that man with the mower anywhere near the new section. Weed-whacker only until it's established. You probably won't need to mow this area for the next 6 weeks anyway. Maybe someone else will have a better/easier solution, but this is what I did and it works. I certainly welcome any criticism or comments on my suggestion.

I don't want anyone to think I was saying people should not post their bloomers no matter what zone they were in. What is not helpful information for me in my garden might be just the thing to know for someones elses garden. As far as what I have gotten in late bloomers. I went for all those Olallie late ones that they list as September bloomers. Then I do have some growing here I hope will be the right bloom time. I have Richard Norris' CORAL MAJORITY which should bloom late. Bloomed here its first year (put in this spring) around peak bloom. But I did get late bloom from Brian Culver's VICTORIANA and Melanie Mason's GUAVA JELLY. Both new this spring. JUM MURPHY's LAST CHANCE FOR ROMANCE is listed as very late and just bloomed. I also have Jim's ALCHEMIST, should be late but first year flowers bloomed earlier. I have Don Herr's IN HIS HANDS listed as late blooming, bloomed earlier on first year plant. I have Bret Clemment's BLAST FROM THE PAST, has not bloomed. New this year listed as very late. I have FINAL DESTINATION from Karol Emmerich. Blooming now. Then I have 6 Dale Thomas intros that I put in late this spring from Perfect Perrenials in PA. Dale hybridizes in PA zone 6 and these all should bloom in August as listed as late and very late. Bloomed at peak bloom here their first year. Hope thats not going to be the trend with them as I really liked the flowers on them and would really be liking to see them in August when there was not much going on here. Even early August would be wonderful. I liked them so much I would like to find more of them but they seem impossible to find. I also would like to find some of Betty Harwoods late bloomers but again, impossible to find. I feel this was a small start to my plans of expanding bloom here into August. Sime I have so many "normal" season bloomers and don't have room for 200 late bloomers (do that many truely lates even exhist?) it means I will probably never have as much bloom in August as July but I will work on it. This of course, doesn't count rebloom. I have no idea when and how much rebloom I will have here as the northern hybridized "guaranteed" rebloomers were just put in this year and too new too rebloom. The exception seem to be many Emmerich intros that are just as new but have rebloom scapes currently.