I like your diagram. Are you in Ontario, Canada? If so, purple fountain grass will not survive your winter. The maiden grass, miscanthus, will get the largest. 5 foot circle for it, could get 5 feet tall. Switch grass, maybe a 3 foot circle, might go 4 feet tall. The fescue is small, and stays that way. Only need a 1 foot circle, maybe 1 foot tall. You want all your grasses together? Me, I think the neatest thing about grasses is the contrasts they make with other unrelated plants. So I mix grasses with perennials and annuals and shrubs and roses and conifers. That's not to say you must do as I do. It's just an idea for your consideration. Get thee to a library or good bookstore. Find some books on ornamental grasses. Check the sections on designing with grasses. You will see some neat pictures. Copy those designs if you like them. And beware of buying too many grasses, for they are easy to divide. You can buy one grass, and if it has a good large base, you can just chop it into fourths and you will then have 4 plants that will fill in rather quickly. Seeing that your plantings are only a few months old, it should be no trouble to move them now. Do a little research and then get busy.

Actually, that was the side I didn't do anything to other than cut a few of the larger berry bushes at the bottom of the hill. That birch is in rough shape and without staking it up and waiting several years, it won't survive. I would just assume take it down since it's not really in a great location anyway. I hate to do it since they are becoming relatively scarce due to disease and insects. This picture http://minus.com/lbx4OfKnwRF4xc shows what are definitely blackberry/raspberry bushes. I wouldn't mind having them, in fact I would welcome having a ton more, just not here. Being on the slope they will not be easy to get to when the mature and have fruit. If there was a way to transplant them or something I would love to hear it. I had tried it in the past, but the only way I have ever seen them grow was by accident and negligence. Based on the size of a few of the lower bushes, I would bet they may produce a limited amount of fruit. The smaller ones at the top of the hill however are definitely not mature enough from my experience. Going off on a tangent... I loved having berry bushes growing up and we had a large sandy area on my parent's property that they grew like crazy in. They eventually began to die off and my dad chopped them all down. The began to come back by the time I went to college, but it took a while to get any amount of fruit from them. My last year at college I rented a small cottage on a back road that had the biggest patch of black raspberries I had ever seen. I started picking as soon as they began to ripen and then ever couple days for the next 3 weeks. I stopped for lack of room in the freezer for 1gal ziplock bags. I made at least a dozen pint jars of jam and a few quarts. I gave a bunch away but i'm hoarding the last few of the "good" batch for myself. :) So in other words, I would love to have berry bushes, just not where they are. A lot of what you see on the ground on the left side (looking from the house) is debris and not much in the way of live plants other than some weeds. Obviously it is still very early here and not much has come up yet though. The tree shown in the background of this picture http://minus.com/lbwhVJrx76OE9d appears to be planted from what is left of the mulch/preparation around the base. This shot http://minus.com/lvFny84VUSjeW shows a rock swail that comes down from what is left of the last owners fish pond sort of thing. There is a reddish low lying plant growing on either side that I failed to get a close up picture of. It appears that it will look nice later in the spring but needs some weeding and/or mulching. I will take your advice and try posting some pictures on the "name that plant" forum. In the meantime, would I benefit from getting some sort of tall meadow grass mix to put down in a few weeks? *whoops, I wrote a book

Those weeds are cool season weeds that will either die or go dormant as soon as it starts to get warm. Mow the weeds if you can to keep them from going to seed for next year's bumper crop. A pre-emergent weed killer now and in September will help slow down the next batch of annual weeds. The perennial weeds can be spot sprayed with Weed-b-Gone or Roundup (carefully!) Since it's been so cold this winter I think the lawns will be slow to green up. Fertilize really well this year with high nitrogen ferts or organic fertilizer to thicken up your lawn. A thick well managed lawn will choke out most weeds. There's lots of advice and FAQs on lawn management on these forums and well worth the read.

Hi Bbnjl, First of all congrats on your new home! Hope you are finding time to enjoy it. I feel your pain on working full time as well and trying to keep up with a house and yard but it can be very rewarding. I will start by saying that I am not a grass expert, but here are some things that I would suggest. Can you provide some more information on your outdoor spaces in terms of the approximate size and shape of the space and how much light they receive (which way do they face, i.e north, south east west)? WIth this type of information the really great folks on this site will be better able to help you. I don't think you should have to start entirely over. In my experience anytime you put down grass seed understanding how much sun your lawn will get is important in the seed selection process. I'm assuming that you took this into consideration. You also need to prepare the soil correctly and once you've put down the seed you need to put a thin layer of topsoil or straw in in order to protect the seed from the birds and provide warmth for it to germinate. You're correct that you need to provide appropriate water, but you also need to be careful not to overwater as that can cause issues as well. I am going to post your question to the lawn care forum to see if we can get some more experienced people to help you on your lawn. I would not give up on planting small, easy to care for bushes, trees and perennials that will give you character and color throughout the seasons without requiring a lot of maintenance. Plants have a tough time outside in pots in the winter and its challenging to find space to overwinter potted plants inside, particularly in the NYC area where space and appropriate light can be very limited. Also, just keeping up with watering the pots (they need water more frequently that plants in the ground) can be more time consuming than you expect. For your aloe question, I would suggest that you post that on the house plants forum for help with that.