Pictures: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=eupatorium+fortunei+pink+frost&id=EE71A2F3F3FE631741E8CAADC31974983DED8936&FORM=EQNAMI

I love the color of barberries, but I've had enough of thorns. I meant to include that in my original post. Sorry. I do Eupatorium Chocolate in several places. I like it, but it's too rampant a seeder for here.

I just noticed there were more posts here. Houzz is erratic with sending notifications. Mxk3 - I’m jealous that you’ve gotten so much done inside. I was following your kitchen threads and loved what you did with the backsplash/counter. I thought of doing blackberries until a garden consult suggested a 3ft deep collar of concrete if I didn’t want them everywhere. [g] So you are on the right track. That’s some large space you have there! I don’t envy you, your clean up job, but I’d imagine lots of manure for the garden? Still have a few pots to go in the ground, waiting on me to make a decision where they go. [g] My DH was able to move a variegated holly that was just not happy where it was. So we’ll try it in a new location. That wasn’t even on my list until I was busy in that area and noticed how unhappy it was. It will need better shaping in the spring. Anyone else get a few things done so far? Still picking Bok Choy/Mustard/Broccoli/Cilantro/Parsley/Chives. Basil has had it as of yesterday. Waiting for storage beans to dry out. Just picked the last of the peppers. Lots of mulch and cover crop covering the empty beds so far. Roxanna - Thank you so much for the offer, but at the moment I don’t have one bookshelf in my house. My books are packed in boxes. We’re trying to clear out things and organize. I found that I don’t always pick up a gardening book more than once. I have a couple for reference, the Encyclopedia of Gardening that I rarely open. A few books on Organics by Eliott Coleman and the Well Tended Perennial Garden By Tracy DiSabato and that’s about it. I have been a heavy library user as long as I can remember and in the winter, I used to drag home bags of gardening books. The past 3 winters, I don’t think I’ve read one gardening book. And it’s not looking like I’m going to have a lot of time to do that this winter either.

The first plant looks like a weed grass as opposed to an ornamental garden grass. I can't name the species. Some weed grasses are perfectly lovely in the right setting though. The second shrub is Rose of Sharon, Hibiscus syriacus.