Congrats on your first home!

#1 looks like it could be Rudbeckia laciniata. Could you take a closer pic of the foliage?

#2 could be a Solidago sp.?

#3 may be Lysimachia clethroides.

Hi peren .all

here is a close up of the leaves

Also thank you! We love the new house :)

you may need to let them flower .. to secure ID ... but NEVER let them seed .. until you have the sure ID ...

btw.. nice rock.. best part of that bed.. lol.... so far ...

ken

Yes that is Rudbeckia laciniata - a rambunctious spreader much better for a casual area, not with roses certainly.

I agree with Ken that that is a great rock. It also looks like a sweet lane you live on. Congratulations on your first home - enjoy playing with your new garden!

Hi all thank you for all of your help.

I finally turned that area around and had a very successful summer and fall.

Here's even an after picture (collage), it took about 5 or six times with the weed whacker, but I finally got rid of those black eyed susans and coneflowers, amended the soil a tiny bit, layered some newspaper and some weed fabric, and planted some glads and dahlias! (didn't manage to get a far away pic of them all in bloom). I plan to add some spring bulbs on the skinny strip on the left, and a few roses on the big bald spot on the right (thinking abraham darby)

layered some newspaper and some weed fabric,

==>>> congrats .. sounds like you had a lot of fun ...

skip the weed fabric next time ... ken

Thank you for the update and happy for your success! Agree with Ken about the weed fabric.

Oh, I like all the flowers you got ride of......glads and dahlias won't over winter in zone 6, did you dig them up yet? You can store them in a sand box in the dark unheated basement. People used to tell me that. The flowers you dug up are lazy gardeners flowers, pretty much care free and pretty, they come back every year, called perennials.

Thanks all!

&summersthythm: I haven’t dug them up yet. I was considering leaving them in the ground as many of my zone 6 neighbors have found ways to keep them in. Such as burying them about 2 inches deeper than instructed (which I did an about 99% of them still came up), and then insulating the area during winter. Not sure if I should rethink this though. I DO want to reorganize them a bit, hmm

Also yes I consider them lazy flowers too haha. The man who lived here before my husband and I was almost never home, so the only things he planted (or hired someone else to plant) were those and some poorly maintained rhododendrons and holly right up against the side of the house. They were hideous and struggling and making the front of the house look grimy so those got shovel pruned too

ken andperen.all: will the weed fabric be detrimental? Or just unnecessary?

I so wish I did not need to say this. Information is a good thing though and you can decide what will work for you.

Unfortunately both. It inhibits the natural flow of water and air to the soil. The soil may become hard packed and unhealthy. The airborne seeds that sprout will send their roots down through the fabric and are extremely difficult to remove, yet some desirable ground cover plants will have difficulty putting roots down. It makes it harder to rearrange plants and depending on the type you used it breaks down over time and/or becomes very hard almost like solid plastic. Here is one of many Forum discussions on Landscape fabric

peren.all, oh thank you for the information.

Hm, welp, it's down now haha. Perhaps in a season or two when the mulch needs replacing I'll take it up. TI originally thought that since area was so over run with aforementioned plants, that kept coming back, after the 5th or 6th round of weed whacking, that smothering them would help permanently kill them and help the garden.

It's good for me to know this information now as I have another very small garden that I also used fabric on (it was almost worse-off than this area). I'll have to see how both gardens do and decide if/when I should remove the fabric and re-amend the soil. (I amended both soils this time around but I'm guessing this isn't a "once and done" type of thing).

- thanks so much for letting me know!

The sooner you remove the weed fabric, the better. Roots will grow into it (from area trees, as well as weeds and perennials you have there) and make it more difficult to remove the longer it is there. I would remove it first thing when the ground thaws in the spring. Just rake off the mulch, remove the weed fabric, and replace the mulch. DH put down some landscape fabric 15 years ago over my objections around a windbreak of trees he planted and the fabric is so ingrown with roots now that it is literally impossible to remove.

It is easier to use cardboard or multiple layers of newspapers under the mulch to smother plants you don't want than to deal with the ongoing issues of landscape fabric. Or remove all new leaves repeatedly as soon as they appear from the plants you don't want.

Without the landscape fabric, the mulch will break down over time and will amend the soil, just requiring top dressing of more mulch over time rather than adding amendments under the mulch. Keeping the landscape fabric there will interfere with movement of nutrients, organic matter, air and water.

Wow this is all great information!

ugh I’m so disappointed in myself, wish I had known this

Thank you Peren.all,

I suppose I have to learn somehow haha

better late than never :)