"I have a Snapper I just reengined which is over 20 years old and the engine I took out was still working well but was burning oil and making me gag from the exhaust." with what ruddman said i must agree i am still using the mower my father uses back in the 60's it recieves around 40 hours of use a year and gets a yearly plug oil and air filter change and its still goin although starting to turn into a bit of an aol burner but still a year in a half if horrible life for a new mower. I also have a honda 5.5 HP ohc engine on an old ariens tractor which origonaly came with a 10 HP engine. Even though the engine is overworked by pushing the heavy tractor and turning the blades i keep it from overheating by welding on extra cooling fins to keep it cool so the only thing that i can possibly think of to kill a mower in a year in a half or 3 years for the excelently built honda engines is a total loss of cooling. I know that every year when the leaves fall and i vacume them up i have to clean the cooling fins of my mover after every use as they clog with leaves that got sucked into the top of the recoil starter and chopped up byt the metal screen and even when just mowing grass patricles can be sucked in and clog the cooling fins. So because i know that the honda can be heavily overworked but be fine if kept cool my personal opinion is that this guy should check under the fan shroud from time to time to check to see if the cooling fins are clogged

Thanks for all the ideas! I do have some crimsonia dianthus and some beautiful Sweet Williams that are in their 2nd year now in this bed. I'll have to check out all the suggestions and come up with maybe 4 or 5 of them... I think I need to cut down on the # of varieties and make larger groupings so they look better. I've got a clump of Blue Fescue that I stuck in this bed cause I didn't know where else to put it. I'm planning on making a new bed for bulbs and dayliles and such, that I think it would look great in... I like the idea of sticking an upright grass towards the back of the semi-circular bed... Northern Sea Oats perhaps? Perhaps a clump to each side of the tall plant in the corner? Thanks again for all the wonderful suggestions! Cathy

Chasmanthium latifolium (Northern Sea Oats) has fabulous flowers for floral arrangements. Can be cut and used green or tan. For curiosity value the seed heads on Carex grayii would be quite good in a bouquet. Neat looking, like a tiny mace. Eragrostis spp. ~ any of the weeping love grasses have lovely airy panicles that are long lasting.

That would be my concern about shade loving groundcovers - I would be afraid they would be invasive. In my yard I don't mind planting them if they'll be contained between the house and sidewalk (except for ivy). A landscape architect came out to our house many years ago and showed us how to make a nice-looking mulched bed. We used a garden hose to outline the bed in the shape we wanted. We left the hose in place, made a cut with a shovel on either side of the hose so that eventually the hose was lying in a v-shaped trench. We removed the hose, killed the vegetation inside the bed area, and mulched it. The trench helps the mulch stay put without spilling out into the lawn.