Gee,this is good! Thanks for the information. I am in Ottawa - zone 5 (used to be 4a but has been upgraded). It gets H O T in the summer in the front yard during the heat waves and is quite warm in the afternoons. I am thinking of the following: Progress the project in stages over the spring/summer: First, by the front window - remove the lawn, install patio stones with thyme and other low growing plants between the stones. I want to make a sitting area. Second, work in a scree bed around the perimeter of the sitting area incorporating (please suggest plants here) low growing grasses and plants for this area. Third, mark out a gentle walking area through the remaining lawn (this will either be mulched or stone/gravel walkway) - work on this. Forth, order mushroom compost (about 3 x 3 cubic yards) and cover the bed areas over (I was thinking of covering the grass with newspaper, grass clippings and last years wintered leaves) and then top with the compost. Fifth, plant the plants. I have a lot of perennials and some grasses that I have started. I will be cutting the grass out about a foot and flipping it over all around the garden bed areas (I have done gardens this way before). And finally, sit down, relax and start working on decorating the whole thing. There's a list for this too: Hummingbird feeders and plants that they like will be planted. Bird feeders made from cup/saucers. Butterfly resting areas in the shady nooks with sand in more flatter containers (with drainage/screening so the sand won't spoil). Decorated round stepping stones to incorporate throughout and other ornamental ideas. So I guess I am looking for plant types and more information on what and how a scree bed is designed. I have seen alpine gardens but I need to think hot plants here. Thank you so much for the information to date. I will be checking the resources mentioned, the library and the Master Gardeners in the area. Any ideas or comments are greatly appreciated. Cheers, McPeg

I'd have given a guinea to see both of you! LOL! KT - I would encourage you to plant some milkweed for the Monarch butterflies (it is their host plant), and so much of their habitat is being lost in Oklahoma to development and environmental issues. In Oklahoma alone, 30,000 acres were lost last year. Many milkweeds are native in Oklahoma, like Asclepias incarnata, A. purpurescens, A. verticillata, A. tuberosa, A. syriaca, etc. If you go to the Farmer's Market in Norman on April 7th to Marilyn's booth - Wild Things - she will have lots of native Oklahoma plants, including various milkweeds. Let's don't talk about us crazy ladies (I always think of Steve Martin on Saturday Night Live; we are two wild and craaazzzzzzy guys!). I have had so many falls trying to follow butterflies in the garden. Last summer, I broke my foot trying to get to a butterfly, forgetting that there were steps between me and the butterfly! I fell smack down on top of a bucket of manure tea! Whew! So funny, til I had to go to the hospital for a casting. I also fell backwards right on the old tailbone, trying to pull up weeds. Could barely sit for a month. I sit in the grass by the butterfly feeding bowl to take pictures, waiting for them to appear. I know my neighbors think I'm nuts, with my big ya-ya up in the air bending in contorted positions that one would think impossible on a woman my age (and which my muscles know are impossible by the way I feel the next day). My clematis is leafing out like crazy. To me, it depends on the kind of clematis you get. C. jackmanii will do well in Oklahoma. Anything in the viticelli family, like my C. 'Polish Spirit', which blooms all summer long. It has smaller flowers (about 4") than Jackmanii, but it is just covered in blooms which will start around the end of April to fall. If you get something with that species in its background, you will do well. Also, clematis roots must, absolutely must, be covered. They like their roots to be cool, so pile on the mulch, stones, etc. You can plant them under a bush or something and let their stems wind through the foliage. I use tomato fertilizer on mine, which works very well. I also have 'Nelly Moser', 'Dr. Ruppel', tangutica (it's a thug - don't get it), sweet autumn (don't let go to seed because it will pop up everywhere). I used to have Henryi, which is another good one with a white flower. The guys dug it up when I had my new water line installed. My acanthus mollis made it and is throwing up new foliage finally, as are the meadow rues, heucheras, hellebores (orientalis and foetidus), epimedium (can take dry shade), my petasites japonica variegata is looking REAL good. The campanulas are everywhere now, as well as my autumn blooming anemone robustissima. The foliage is beautiful on it, but it will get ragged in the heat, coming back in fall. I thought I had lost my Rue plants since I planted them out late last year, but they are greening up nicely. These are host plants for the black swallowtails and giant swallowtails. They are not native, but a native plant for the black swallowtails is zizia aurea or zizia aptera. Marilyn has these, too. I've ordered several hops rhizomes, including a new golden cultivar. No beer, they are host plants for Question Marks, Red Admirals, Commas. Another native I planted last year is boehmeria cylindrica (false nettle). It needs some shade and lot of water to establish, but is the host plant for Red Admirals and QMs. I also planted senna hebecarpa, a native for the sulphur butterflies. I also grow monarda fistulosa, a good nectar plant for butterflies and hummingbirds. Pipevine (aristolochia macrophylla) is native and is a host plant for the pipevine swallowtail butterflies. I also have winter sown some verbesina enceliodes (Golden Crownbeard), a host plant for the beautiful little Bordered Patch, and a great nectar plant for the migrating Monarchs in fall. This is native as well. Okay, after all that, I'm anxious to get outside now. Think I'll do some direct sowing. Susan

Google sketch up is pretty great ... Watch the tutorials first you'll get really excited.... I played the tutorials on one computer, paused, and the practiced on another, until I figured it out. Good luck!

I'm not very good at landscaping, but I just wanted to warn you not to plant Queen or Washingtonia palms. Landscapers will try to sell you queen palms, but JUST SAY NO! First off, they are messy, dropping dead limbs and seeds everywhere, which come up all over the place and secondly, they grow so tall that you have to hire someone with a boom to trim them, and then they usually do it wrong. Washingtonias don't drop their leaves, and they just hang there like a dead brown skirt. Ugly. Coconut palms are pretty, but they're not very cold hardy, which is why you don't see many north of 10b. Plus, they drop coconuts everywhere and if you have anything growing under them, it gets crushed. Unfortunately, there isn't much in FL that doesn't take maintenance and isn't going to make some kind of mess. get too big or spread into areas where you don't want it. Choose carefully, and research before you put anything in. Make sure to make note of the mature size of the plant to make sure it won't outgrow the space. You said you like the Pampas grass, so I guess you know that once it gets large, you have to cut it back every year with a chainsaw. There are large native grasses that are much easier to care for, like Fakkahatchee grass. Just be sure to cut off the seed heads before it spreads all over your yard. I will suggest a Jatropha tree or bush (two different species). They are not messy and bloom all year. Their only problem is that they can die back in a freeze, but they come right back up from the roots and grow like mad.