Great!! I believe all those pretty green lawns are an absolute waste of time, work and money. If you can afford it, buy a few good ref. books, or get them at the library. I have one; "Stonescaping" by Jan Whitner that overs everything from Japanese to European styles.

I'm just SW of Pt. Orchard and slowly eliminating the grass thru use of rock, 'found' items and plantings. While many plants are chosen for color and form, I try to incorporate as many that have edible parts.

Thank you Rain1950 for the book recommendation. I've poured over at least 50 books from local library and visited some of my favorite garden in town.
Now that I am placing the rocks the designing of plants around them is easier and lends toward a more natural placement. I too will be incorporating some edibles in the front yard as there are quite a few gorgeous vegetables to show off!

Someone gave me a beautiful plant for my new front yard. It is a self-sowing perennial that has fairly delicate leaves and a gorgeous shade of blue/violet on the leaf tips. She does not know the name of the plant. It's going through a bit of transplant shock right now, I sure hope it makes it as it is a very striking plant...could anyone help me identify it? Thank you.

My lawn IS still gone and friends and family are gifting me with some wonderful plants to help cover all this gorgeous soil! One friend yanked up a bit of this great and tender perennial that self-sows, all green with this lovely intense shade of blue/violet on the leaf ends where flowering would occur. She didn't know the name of it. I hope it survives transplanting as it is one of the most unique plants I've seen in awhile and wouldn't mind if it reseeded all over my yard! Thanks for your help.

I think I recognize the description and the name will come to me in time.... but in the interim you get better answers when you're in the right forum. Try the perennials forum for that question.