I have zero help on what to plant but you need to finish getting rid of the Bermuda Grass first. Its an ugly process. Weeds that grow from seeds are way down the priority list compared to the problem below the surface. Don't disturb the soil because you don't want to break off the Bermuda Grass and leave pieces that are very deep and will not come back for many months. You need to water deeply and wait for the Bermuda to come back up. You can gently pull on them and see if they are shallow. Don't break them off. Mostly that is a waste of time. Hit the new growths with Round Up. Repeat until there aren't any new growths of Bermuda Grass. You will probably need to repeat this 4-5 times so you are looking at a 3 month process. If you try to do this in a month you will have lots of remaining Bermuda that will sprout. You will need to be vigilant and Round Up every new growth. If you have established plants at that time, the best way is to dab Round Up Concentrate directly on the sprout. The plants system will circulate it through the plant. An alternative process on such a small area is to completly sift the top 8" of dirt to remove all the Bermuda Grass rhizomes. I understand that the best way to do this on the other side is to mow the Bermuda short and then use lots of Round Up on it. That gets down into the rhizomes and then very little will come back. I'm not a huge fan of Round Up, or any chemicals for that matter, but this is an ideal use of Round Up. Edited to add: I forgot to mention that the rhizomes from the remaining side can spread under the walkway and recontaminate your hard work. This post was edited by GregBradley on Sat, Apr 19, 14 at 13:05

My first reaction was like Flowerlady's: OMG, what has she done? And then I realized you had hired help to clean up and I sighed in relief. I admire those of you who are able to hire help who actually knows what they're doing and help you. I have yet to find anyone here that I would gladly let touch my garden... The old timers know about vegetable gardens only (and the use of lots of pesticides and herbicides) and the garden centers are mostly concerned with grass mowing (of which I have none) and formal hedge clipping (I only have informal hedges). Noone here knows anything about old roses or even rose pruning. They simply prune roses to ground level come January and call it a day. The lady who helps me with the house wanted to help me out with the garden last year, when I was so busy working in a company, and weeded one of my beds, without my knowledge and previous consent. She weeded most of my opium poppies which were short from blooming... She thought they were weeds... I almost had an heart attack when I saw that and told her, yet again and as politely as I could, that the garden was off limits to her. The works we have just done to the house were another source of garden stress to me, as to have a crew of masons loose in the garden was a tough number. They broke and destroyed a lot of things in the garden, partly because they didn't have much room to move and partly because they didn't even understand there was a live plant there - to them, any deciduous shrub which had lost its leaves was officially dead. It took quite a while to convince them that they were dormant (i.e. sleeping, so that they could understand). So... I'm glad at least some of you can hire help which doesn't destroy more than it helps. As for the acreage, I used to dream of a larger garden too, as my garden is a postage stamp lot. However, given the absence of reliable help and the cost involved, I have gladly forsaken it. This garden is a size I can reasonably maintain myself, if I'm careful with what I plant and balance stuff which requires cuddling with other easy maintenance plants. More than this would be unrealistic and I would have to let the garden go. When I'm no longer able to care for the garden, if it comes to that, I'll move to an apartment by the beach and call it a day :-) Eduarda

Thanks, Kay and Val. You know how the FFO's are - sometimes they are the utmost gorgeous bloom to be had on the plant, never to be quite so stunning again. I hope that's not the case. I couldn't believe my eyes when I measured it. I had to do it three times to make sure. I've had a few of the fall-planted tet seedlings in the backyard bed to bloom this year, but not many. I wasn't expecting any more from them this year. I think the unusual amount of rain we've had this month has really helped. Last year I asked some questions here at the forum if anyone knew about the importance of early morning sun, and no one seemed to know if it made a difference. (Our daylilies were getting at least 5-6 hours of sunlight, but the ones at the back next to the fence were not thriving.) We had an existing 6' board fence across the back (as well as the sides), so we had it and some trees removed or trimmed, and installed a wrought iron one. That and the rain have made a tremendous difference, especially in those planted in the last row closest to the fence. Nancy

brianadarnell, Thanks--I figured it must be that way, but I reallly didn't know for sure. If the switchplates went over the tile, it seems that they wouldn't lay flat over the tile and also the box would be too recessed behind the cover. You would think that some smart tile manufacturers would realize if they made switchplate covers to match their tile (or perhaps just their more popular tiles) they would be big sellers. Or maybe some have, and I just don't know about them yet.