JoJo -- I need professional help

Ok, so I haven't given up completely. I stand by my assertion that this is too much work for one inexperienced person with a full-time corporate job (Moe has disappeared -- whereabouts and intentions unknown), so I have decided to get help ($$) from a tree-hugging landscaper and do it in phases.

What I have learned so far:

New plantings that neither died easily nor spread rapidly: yarrow, salal, wood sorrel, sword fern, huckleberry, clover (once established), mint, penstamon, red-twig dogwood, wintergreen, bleeding heart, green beans, buckwheat.

Limping along: trillium, wild ginger, corn, squash, vine maple, fennel.

Still deciding to be or not to be: salmonberry, woodland strawberry, mountain hemlock, wax myrtle, gooseberry, serviceberry, persimmon, runner beans.

Gave up: red flowering currant, shamrock, foamflower, eggplant.

The two things I could have done that would have made a difference:

• Started by installing the drip irrigation. Most of my plant suicides were from lack of water in this unexpectedly hot summer. I just didn't have the time to do enough every single day. (Redundancy!)


• Have a back up for Moe. When he disappeared the maintenance was too much for me and the weeds got a jump on a couple of areas. (Redundancy again!)

Good outcomes:

• Massive soil improvement and weed suppression in about 1/4 of the yard. Yay! My dogs no longer get sores on their legs from the buttercups.


• I learned that encouraging more rapid succession doesn't necessarily mean instant succession. So I don't have much more to show for that last two summers than two years of cover crops. It's better preparation for the future plantings by someone who knows what they're doing than two more years of weeds.