I've seen a small amount of stiltgrass, after seeing the pic on the link provided. I had wondered IF Honeysuckles was an invasive or native. I don't mind the Honeysuckle that is at the property line near a wooded piece of property between ours and the neighbors property line. The neighbor has sheep now that he moves a rope fence around the property to eat weeds. I let him put the temporary fence so they could eat ,many of those weeds on the property line. Anyway, I wish I could get fall leaves to stay under my oaks. I had a few winters ago taken bags of collected leaves from the leaf dump and spread them under my Chestnut oak. it is limbed up to about 5 feet up and some hangs down to about 3 feet, BUT, the wind blows em all out from under the oak. I used to use Roundup extended that lasts 4 months to keep only the plants I wanted growing, BUT, NOW, I was told by the other family members to NEVER use Roundup again. When I had first started to grow my trees, I had thought that IF the trees are large enough and there is a great amount of shade cast by them, like my Chestnut oak, I would have NO weeds growing under them. You know, no sun, no weeds. Well, I see that is wrong. It sadly seems that since the white man settled in America, we have brought with us invasives as in wild boar, invasive plants and diseases. The Native Americans were great at many things that benefited the USA. They used controlled burns to avoid all the dry sticks etc that cause a GREAT out of control fire and they gardened using ways that were smart. I am pretty sure that they used their own waste to compost, BUT, I can't sight a source to prove that. They were great stewards of the land. I have a lot of barnyard grass, and grass that is tough, but thin leaved BUT has seedheads on it at about a foot tall and when I mow it with the tractor it takes sometimes me having to go over parts of it twice, and sometimes even if it is 6 inches tall I have to go over parts of it. My tractor can have a sharp blade just after being sharpened and still I will have to go over parts of it twice. I have places in my yard that grow super fast. I am out in the country and some is surely from barley or hay seeds blowing into my yard. I am going to only keep a tree or 2 that I will mulch under and try to keep weedfree. Without the Roundup it is a never ending battle.

It sounds like you are creating a rhododendron & azalea heaven. The only problem is the roots. Rhododendrons and azaleas have shallow roots so they can't compete with other plants roots. They need excellent drainage and acidic soil. Don't forget to mulch them well after you plant them. R. arborescens*, good choice. R. calendulaceum*, good choice. R. canescens*, good choice. R. cumberlandense*, good choice. R. periclymenoides, will be slower growing than the others. R. prinophyllum*, a little harder to grow than the others. R. catawbiense, good choice. R. maximum, tolerant of shade, doesn't like too much sun. R. minus, has small root system, won't compete well. * indicates also available from Greer Gardens in Eugene, Oregon, if a local source isn't available. http://www.greergardens.com/RhododendronSpecies.htm Here is a link that might be useful: Don Hyatt's Native Plants Website

thanks, everyone! we're thrilled with the result and now spend a lot more time out front with wine in hand watching the action in the park -- there's a boot camp group over there in the evenings, and in the mornings tai chi, yoga and stroller stride moms working out. I'm starting to feel a little guilty watching all these people get in shape while I sit and drink my wine. :) cat_mom, cyn427 and others, the front door color is BM Wythe Blue. The house color is BM White Dove. Shutters are BM Kendall Charcoal. Kellienoelle, the door mat was purchased at Target about 4 months ago. That's hilarious about your doormat! If you can't track it down at Target, I've seen similar ones on Etsy. scrappy, our contractor had to pour a reinforced cement foundation to lay the new flagstone. The existing patio we just overlaid the flagstone. I don't know the total cost of just the patio b/c it was bundled in with the landscaping and other work the contractor did (adding low voltage lighting, upgrading our sprinkler system, etc) but I'll check. chispa, I am definitely going to get some taller succulents for those pots. I think they need some height - love the suggestion of Sticks of Fire! those are my favorite!

There are many different species of tree fern that come from all sorts of different habitats. Do you have an ID for yours? Some tree ferns drop their fronds soon after they dry off. Some retain the dead fronds for quite a while. As long as there's plenty of good fronds in the crown of the plant it does no harm to cut off the ones that are dying and looking bad. As long as they have plenty of water some tree ferns can cope with full sun. But that's not all species. If you don't know the ID then stick with keeping it out of direct sunlight, or in filtered sun at most. Remember that indoors the air get's quite dry so the plant will appreciate a bit of misting.