And now for the back yard (less detail perhaps)..btw, the back yard has potholes and becomes lakes when it rains.

Ok, from corner gate, I did mow just a little back here. You can see another stump that I have played ring around the stump with mainly woodland natives...it's a bit exposed but I think it'll probably work. the chain link fence is covered with small trees that are being slowly chain saw'd down, and euonymus that will be herbicided.

Ok, from the perspective of the garage door, you can see (including debris left by previous owner, like rocking horse), a faint 10x10 rectangle close to the house that was their vegetable garden. It's becoming a perennial bed and is about 1/2 planted now. I also have some shady wet loving plants along the house wall behind it....including naturally occuring ferns and violets. I have a one gallon Arrowwood viburnum (viburnum dentatum) planted between the mulberry on the fencerow and the flower bed.

And finally this is the corner of doom. There was an outbuilding here, the soil doesn't grow much in the corner...and floods...and they dumped trash there (see barrel). I'm cutting trees..you can see the downed silver maple which was growing almost under the garage. I basically just plan to ignore this area, aside from vigorous herbicide against japanese honeysuckle and privet.

Oh, my Dbarron, you certainly have some work ahead of you! Please keep us updated as your work on your transformation.

Yes, it is sad...esp since they cut all the established trees...nothing but weed trees in fencerow now.

When in a few years it has been transformed, you will appreciate having these before photos.

Call me weird but I think its a stroke of luck to loose the trees, look at all that sunny space! Its bigger than I pictured, a whole lot bigger. Needs some bones but once you start defining areas it won't seem so daunting and you can choose your own trees. Did I say daunting? Thats a big space but you have lots of room for some large shrubs too.

I had good luck chopping down privet and painting the cut stumps with stump killer, they aren't as bad as a lot of things. I dug out a hedge the length of the property after chopping it down to about a ft tall until I got worn out, said 'Uncle" and ran into major tree roots, then I got a couple guys to finish digging them. It was the tree roots that caused the problems. Seems every property line in the old part of the city here is filled with junk trees, privet vinca major, orange daylily and lirope. All of which I hate. Good luck and thanks for showing the pictures.

Yeah, I've just been waiting for warm weather to deal the herbicide blow to them.
I wouldn't want solid trees, but I would like at least one large one for shade-lovers.

Whew, you do have a lot of work ahead of you, dbarron! The house we bought a year and a half ago was completely overgrown and weedy (and we've got bindweed, ugh!). We're slowly making progress but I often have to put the blinders on and only focus on one area at a time otherwise I become very overwhelmed when I look around.

I am looking forward to your progress!

barron, the privets weren't all that difficult to dig out, its those da@#$! Hackberry roots that made some of it too difficult for me the further south I got. There were about 40 of them. I'm working on an old one I can't get the shovel to, its very large on the fence line but not on my side, I think of it as no-mans land since its neglected which is why the junk trees grow there. The hackberry trees made the privet lean toward my side like a big green monster 8 ft tall coming to get me and dropping its zillions of seed each year. Finally, last year I cut it down to about 5" and squirted stump killer on each stem, some stems needed lops but on others I had to use a saw. I noticed there are three sprouting some leaves so I'm going to spray it until the thing is dead. I do the ninja routine on any new trees. The less said, the better. I doubt he noticed the one I cut down, there's plenty more screening the view from his side.

There's a monster on the east side but that one is in the neighbors yard too and I have to live with it. It blocks my path if left to its own will so I am constantly trimming it, its flat on my side and huge on theirs. Quite lovely to look at. They seed like crazy, very invasive.

We rented a stump grinder and did a DIY on stumps here. If they aren't too big its not so bad. Makes a nice deep planting area after.

Great advice regarding design, wantonamara. I am in the process of doing the same thing with our lot. The tracing paper is essential, in my mind, to overcome the fear of putting pencil to paper. If you don't like it, crumple it up and grab a new sheet; there is nothing lost. I did a few off-the-cuff designs, just going wild and I actually ended up really liking one aspect that I pulled from thin air. I am reminded of Van Gogh's quote:

"Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile. You don't know how paralyzing that is, that stare of a blank canvas ..."

Bog sage ( salvia uglinosa Z6a- 10a) is a beauty for a large garden with water issues. It is a spreader but I loved it when I could grow it.

Both bog sage and bamboo don't like wet feet (at least bog sage didn't in Oklahoma...I read in colder zones it prefers drier winters). I do have a tiny tiny baby Green Panda (Fargesia rufa) that I planted in a much drier area near the air exchange and the house.
I'm slowly putting some things together and taking others apart. I got enough dry weather (two days) to hit a lot of things with Roundup, preparatory to cutting them down in a month or two (wanting no resprouts).

Bog sage loves wet feet here. Mine died in my new place because I planted where it get wet and dry. It hogged my place where I dump my grey water that never dries out. I pulled it out because it is a tiny area.

I did plant some spearmint in the mini-pond a couple days ago...it *does* love the wet of course...and while not native and really not beautiful, it'll be a ground cover and I LOVE spearmint tea. I have a method of "brewing" it that just takes fresh leaves, water, jar, and a freezer. Crush leaves, freeze till crystals starting in the water....very refreshing and essential oils preserved by not boiling.

Yeah, with wet soil, I slowly lost the battle with bog sage up here. And truth be known, I wasn't totally wild about it anyway...but I had to try it :)

I have seen some that was BLAH but I have seen another strain that was gorgeous.

Barron it seems to me a crime & shame that the previous owners planted crud like privet and jap-honeysuckle when they could've planted something like loblolly pines, sassafras and possumhaw. I never get that. Possumhaw would be nice replacing that privet and that viburnum you planted is a good native start. You have to wonder what kinds of trees they cut down. When we drove up there to Lowell and Rogers I saw some pretty amazing native trees but it was the miles of wildflowers that really made me gasp. I swear, miles and miles of them with whole areas red with Indian Paintbrush. I wish I could go back with a paper bag when it all goes to seed.

We actually got some rain last night, finally got some of it when it was on its way to you. I've got my stash of poison ivy/brush killer ready to go when it dries out here (!@#$!), gotta do the yearly ordeal on the new hackberry seedlings which are now a good 3 ft tall. They kept predicting rain and then it misses us so I've held off the war. I guess if I'd really wanted it to rain I should have gone ahead and sprayed the stuff. I'm wondering if it would be best to just cut them and paint the tips left or spray the leaves, I usually spray the leaves but started thinking it might be easier to cut and save brush killer. What do you think?

If you drive through the longer scenic route sometime could you take a look out the car window and see if you can ID that thick tussock type grass growing on the sides of the mountains. I saw lots of it but only in that scenic area on the way to Lowell, its a really nice looking grass with fine blades that weep nicely. I tried to look it up online with no luck. There was also some kind of tall grass-like plant that had weird cottony looking tops on them, they stood out and were like nothing I've ever seen before. Very weird plants, wish I'd taken a picture.

My friend GW in Berryville says everywhere he cultivates his land theres rocks buried. I'm wondering if yours is like that? He's got quite a collection now that he's dug up but it makes cultivating challenging and he gripes about it a lot. Maybe all those potholes in your yard are where they dug up rocks?

Could be. God, I dig up rocks and there goes sometimes 75% of the volume, sometimes more. I dug a hole today and there was not one rock. I nearly fainted. It was not a big hole. I was planting 18 agave brachytosa from a plant swap amongst a brow of a hill under some cedars and VERY small oaks .

Those people had a dearth of native honeysuckle to choose from too. It is a shame, but they had lots of company.

I primarily use Roundup, so I sprayed tender new growth and gotta wait on a kill. Lord, I have stubs of privet all over the lawn...mowing is hard on the mower. (found that out two days ago)

Actually some of that 'grass' is the golden aster you referenced TR in your email. I see a lot of prairie dropseed out in the back roads too. As to the cottony topped things, I wish you'd taken a photo too.

I've lived in rocks piles before..but no, this was river bottom/swamp years ago....not much for way of rocks.

Well, I thought it might be time for an update...though some of the "beds" were nicer a couple weeks ago. Everything has it's season..and almost everything is a native plant.

Here is the front view as updated. I have removed the euonymus on the trellis, planted a passionflower there (still pretty small) and removed the corner privet and replaced with a (small) Sabal palm.

This is one of my "ring around the stumps" which I used to A) plant things B) hide bare decaying stump without having to tediously dig it out. This is in the right fore corner of the above pic.

In the backyard, I have started turning the bermuda infested vegetable garden into a perennial bed. Again, the focus is almost completely on native perennials from no farther away than Texas. I've cut the bradford pears and maple saplings that were in the back...but I have privet still to deal with (Roundup).

I also want to replace the drive golden privet with something else...haven't figured out what though..given my overly moist soils.

I ran across this website today looking for Low-Gro Sumac. They carry starter sized shrubs for a reasonable price. For example, how about Nanny Berry? Suckering shrub, winter food for birds & nesting, likes wet. Or Cranberry Viburnum? I haven't read through all of them.

What is the pink flowering plant in the top photo? It sort of looks like penstemon.

http://www.whiteoaknursery.biz/seedling_06.shtml

It's that new hybrid sage (of which I don't recall the name just now) greggii x something else. Suppossed to be hardy...but it's a will see. Seems very floriferious.

Or did you mean the callirhoe bushii ?