Your yard looks great! I realize its been a year but I would love to see current pictures:) I am facing a very similar situation and was wondering what you ended up planting on the berm? Also curious to know if you had the rest of the juniper removed? We have a large one in our yard that has kind of taken over and are thinking about having it taken out and replaced with something more manageable as far as size and trimming needs, but hopefully as drought resistant since it is a difficult area to water.

Sorry for the delay in replying. One piece of advice I would give is to try to kill the existing lawn first. I didn't because I thought I could slowly replace the existing lawn with the low maintenance (mostly native) grasses, but it just made it take a lot longer for the natives to take over. In the interim, I needed to water enough to keep the existing lawn alive. And the old grasses are still able to survive well enough (I've only watered once this year) that there are still some areas with a fair amount of KBG/tall fescue. I bought individual seeds from various sources and planted them, essentially coming up with my own mixture. I have been recommending Cabin Mix from Utah Seeds lately, because they've got a good mix of seeds that should do well in the intermountain west. The grass will probably go dormant in July or August if you don't water at all, but it will stay alive with 15 inches of rain per year. You could probably keep it green with a minimal amount of water (maybe a half inch to an inch a month or so). I've had the best results using dormant seeding, but I'm not sure whether that would be a good idea if you kill the existing lawn because of the possible problems with erosion. You'd probably be okay if you left the dead grass in place. If you're willing to water a couple of times a day to establish the grass, you could plant in the next few weeks and they'd be well established by next summer. If you go with the cabin mix, you'll have sheep fescue (MX-86, which is a pretty new variety), roadcrest crested wheatgrass and sodar streambank wheatgrass. The sheep fescue is a bunch grass, but it tillers and will spread a bit if you mow it. Both of the others are rhizomatous, so they should spread to fill in bare spots. All three are relatively fine bladed. They're a nice color, but won't be quite as dark green as a KBG lawn. I used to be a big fan of western wheatgrass, but I'm less of a fan of it now. It's too difficult to establish, and it's more of a blue than a green, so it stands out a bit. If you've got spots that are drier and hotter, you might want to try blue grama. It's a bunch grass, but (as with sheep fescue) it will spread a bit via tillering, especially if it's mowed periodically. I've got some in my hellstrips, because they get hot and dry out faster than the rest of the lawn. One drawback to blue grama is that it will go dormant once it gets cold and will stay dormant until around early to mid May or so. If it's mixed in with the other grasses, you may end up with a patchy looking lawn at times, since the other grasses will be green while it's brown and it will thrive in the summer while the others suffer. Another option is buffalo grass. I looked into it when I first started my quest, but it needs full sun and hot weather. It would be dormant too long for my tastes. There may be varieties that stay green a little longer now, but in my opinion, it's not the best choice for an area that gets as cool as it does where you are. Of the grasses I discussed, Crested wheatgrass is introduced, but well adapted to our climate. Sheep fescue is native to the US, but there are some varieties that were introduced from other countries. I'm not sure where MX-86 falls. The others are all native.

Make the bed deeper (at least 6' deep) so that the plants aren't right up against the house and move the ones there farther out (or replace them entirely). Choose plants that are sized so that they won't need pruning. Plant so that at their expected size at 10 years they will still not be against the house - leave about 1' between the expected width and the wall so the building isn't damaged and the plants grow symmetrically. Put in a buried edging that keeps out the grass, mulch the bed well (3"-4" deep) after planting, and put in a groundcover such as Astilbe chinensis pumila, lady's mantle or pachysandra to reduce light to the mulch and therefore reduce weeds. Plan to spend 10 minutes a week weeding so that no weeds get big enough to seed around. Consider planting just a few types of plants, and not high maintenance ones like lavender or roses. Have some evergreen shrubs and/or groundcovers and some long-flowering shrubs - for me panicled hydrangeas such as Little Quickfire fit the bill, but I don't know enough about soils and temperatures in TN to have a feel for what would work for you. Shrubs with groundcovers will be far less work than a perennial garden.

I've noticed that whatever size is printed on the tag or is claimed on the Internet, is about half of the real final size. In their desire to see quick results people are prone to getting fast growing plants that soon get out of bounds. I think it's better not to rush it as time seems to pass quickly as soon as one focusing on other things. With water and fertilizer I find most plants to grow reasonably fast. There are always exceptions but as a general rule, they do.