I'd stay away from the RoundUp ... you'll end up with big dead grasses tainted with chemicals that will have to be removed anyway ... just chop out the grasses root and all if need be.

What you really need is to clear the mind .. not the garden .. fall sounds like a great time to start .. read a bit this summer so you can start to bulid a good lanscape design for YOUR garden but most of all get away from it all including yourself ... let your next garden emerge from within you ... listen to the hum of your own existence.

Good Day ...

It sounds like you over-planted, it's easy to look at a tiny plant in its 1-gallon pot and forget that it will become a 5-foot wide shrub in a couple of years. What would it look like if you removed part of the Russian sages, all the dying whatevers, and some of the grasses to give you more room?

I would IMMEDIATELY do the Roundup on the grasses you do not want (I do not believe the "toxic forever rumors) ... water them well to get them growing well, then betray their trust by killing them. Then slice them off at ground level.

Do NOT use black plastic. It smothers the roots of everything. Layers of newspaper, wetted, then covered with a THICK layer of mulch works well.

Spend the summer planning ... take some pictures and good measurements of the area, visit nurseries and public gardens. Make your plans based on the MATURE size (or 5-year size) of the plants.

Thanks lazygardens for the tips!

The space isn't overplanted but I think because everything is grass and/or grass-like it just looks more like an overgrown field than a nicely kept garden. There is room between the plants but it just isn't tidy looking. Definitely not the greatest for curb appeal as it is on the front of the house by the walkway.

My plants definitely don't look like the picture perfect ones I kept seeing in all my books - I should have known better. That's why I think I should have used more different plants, such as shrubs or small evergreens or something to balance out the wispy grasses.

But I love ornamental grasses (hence "grassgirl" handle). I think they are awesome and very easy to maintain. So whatever goes in there needs the same characteristics - easy to maintain and tolerant of direct sun and clay soil.

I'm just having a hard time figuring out where to begin the do-over! :-)

"I'm just having a hard time figuring out where to begin the do-over! :-) "

In your head ...

Good Day ...

LOL Mohave Kid!

You have far more faith in my imagination and knowledge of gardening than I do. To say I was a newbie without much design sense would be putting it mildly.

I've only been a home-owner for a couple of years. Living in apartments, I didn't need to tend gardens, or whatever I had were in containers (much easier to deal with / maintain / change etc).

I do have several books and some have helped but none are the "perfect" book, at least that I can find yet. So, so far I've learned the pictures in the books are perfect and your plants may be far from that for a variety of reasons and that my first attempt at designing was just this side of terrible (although the majority of the plants are still alive and doing well - at least I can say that).

In any case, before I even get to the design stage again - I was basically needing to know the best way to get a clean slate again with decent/good soil (i.e. would round-up be worse for clearing it or plastic bags, etc)

Not to mention that stump...can't plant on that and the suckers just won't stop growing even after being completely blocked from the sun...

"Not to mention that stump...can't plant on that and the suckers just won't stop growing even after being completely blocked from the sun..."

Sure ... the energy for the new growth is coming from storage in the roots ... in time it will run out of steam but you may want to hire someone to grind out the stump...

I have nothing against using chemicals BUT the plants will not simply go away after being sprayed .. most likely they will still need to be removed the old fashioned way ... if you have something planted that is very invasive ... chemicals may be a option.

True .. one can brush up on design skills via books ect but the real clincher is to learn to feel your very own hum and build a place for it to exist .. a place of your very own ... that will not come from books ...

A pleasure talking with you.

Good Day ...

I've been there. Having a total mess of a garden area in front of me and not knowing what to do with it to fix it. Frankly, I spent a lot of time just looking at it from every angle, even walking down the street and turning around to stare at it. It may sound goofy to some, but eventually I started visualizing a shrub here and there, a sort of meandering path, maybe a stone garden bench. The side yard no longer looks like a chopped down weedy, twiggy mess. It looks really nice, people compliment me on it. Never did get the stone bench. Turned out that there were so many areas in the side yard where there was too much ledge or big roots from trees either living or dead, that I had to adjust my hole digging to that. The bench would have gone right in a good digging spot.
Anyway....just kind of try to relax your fevered brain for this summer. I have a couple of big stumps in my back yard that we keep meaning to have ground down, meanwhile, I have big tub planters on them. I put trailing annuals in them and the effect is pretty nice. If the grasses are too messy, grit your teeth and cut down cut some of them down to the ground. If there are things you're sure you don't want use the method described by someone else here. Gather up a whole lot of newspaper and layer it on the stuff you want to kill off. The thicker the paper layer is, the less mulch you'll have to use to top it off. I used that method in my side yard to smother the vast area of weeds and vines that was there and it did a pretty good job. I put my wad of newspapers in a bucket with a few inches of water in it to dampen them. Don't try to do this on a windy day. You'll want your sheets of newspaper to be laying out flat wherever possible, 5 to 15 layers of paper thick. Have a bag or bucket of mulch with you at all times. Lay down the damp paper and when you have a square yard or so covered, dump some mulch on it to weigh the paper down. When your area is pappered, spread at least a couple of inches of mulch on it. Make sure your papers overlap each other. Some stubborn plantlife will manage to find its way through any cracks. Those you can give a shot of roundup to through the summer. You'll get pesky little wind blown weed seeds sprouting in the mulch, get rid of those weeds before they have a chance to settle in.
The rest of the summer grab a lawn chair and sit and look at the yard til a vision of what you want starts to emerge. All it takes is one idea in just one spot to get you rolling. Buy garden magazines and get books out of the library for inspiration. Don't let yourself get carried away, I've been there then wanted to kick myself.
I wish you well.

kennebunker's got it just about right, but I have a few refinements :)

if you have a juicer, try one pineapple, the juice of half a lime, the other half juiced skin and all, and about an inch of ginger root. add seltzer (or ice) to taste.

add to the 'sit and think' a 'quadrille' pad or graph paper pad, and a set of colored pencils. one brand is all color, no wood (more bang for your buck) though crayons can be used in a pinch.

that lets you think on paper- ideas like 'this bush will spread this far, and be this color...so I should leave this much room, and flank it with THIS plant' come much easier for most of us that way, and you can do 'plans' and 'elevations' to get things just right...and you don't have to be any kind of an artist to do it

(my dad's a first rate illustrator. I'm no such thing, so he taught me two things- first is that a copy mashine and a light table (or a glass top table with the lamp on the floor) is your best friend. the second is that half an hour of drafting can make up for a lack of 'natural talent')