I totally agree about the ostrich ferns. I had them at the back of my north facing bed with hostas and shrubs. It took a few years but suddenly they were everywhere. When they started pushing up through the pavement in the driveway I decided to dig them out. What a job! Those ropey runners where creeping through everything. I had to dig up a hosta to get the fern out of the middle of it. Little sprouts are still coming up, but I won't let them loose in there again. Now they are confined to a corner devoted to them alone. I see another one working its way through the pavement though. I sprayed with Round Up, but it didn't seem to do anything to it. It looks like a delicate plant but those things are tough! I could also do without the billion seedlings of forget- me- nots that sprout all over the place in the spring. I find them weedy looking. As soon as they start to decline I will rip them all out and dispose of them in the garbage, but it makes no difference. They'll be sprouting in this yard again next year and forever it seems. They were initially planted by me. I now hate them.

lol, we had sweet woodruff and lily-of-the-valley growing up, but over the years I've lost both. Don't really want them back, but they didn't persist here once the water was turned off. Now you folks saying "dead nettle", are you talking about Lamium species (Lamium maculatum is the most commonly offered, though I've seen others in the area, and L. purpureum is a cool little invasive annual with purple leaves on top in earliest spring), or are you talking about Lamiastrum galeobdonicum, what is also called "Yellow Archangel" (and a worse misnomer I have never heard for a plant, that is as near evil as a plant can get...) Lamium I like, Lamiastrum I have been fighting for years. Brought a pot home, rescued from the dumpster at a nursery i used to work at. Thought it was pretty, so when it started spreading under the rhodies I didn't mind too much. Then it spread UNDER the deck, coming up through the slats. Ugh. Been spending quite a bit of time and effort trying to get it off my property, and covertly ripping out hunks of it on the neighbor's rental property too. Anyone else try growing Birdsfoot Trefoil? When I first started gardening 20 some odd years ago, I thought it was a pretty native, so brought a piece of it home. It was cool how it would kind of weave in between the other plants in the rockery. Then I found out it not only wasn't native, but it was an official noxious invasive. Haven't been able to get it out from between the rocks in 15 years of careful weeding. It really is a lovely cheerful thing though... I have comfrey in the back, lots of it in dry shade. Its now fighting with the Oxalis, another thug. It will be interesting to see who wins. So far the comfrey is, but I may start ripping it apart in places. Did you know its used in England as a compost starter? Apparently it tends to concentrate phosphorus in the leaves, making it a good thing to round out the nutrient profile in compost. I can do that, lol. Herb Robert, according to local lore, was first introduced into the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle as an easy annual for dry shade. It quickly turned into a weed and has been passed along unintentionally by foot and fur far and wide. Winter is the best time to get a leg up on the persistent little buggers. Apparently the spring loaded seed heads can shoot the seeds as far as twenty feet. I can attest that is as much up as out, since they regularly jump the neighbor's fence. Unless neighborhood cats and squirrels are acting as the vectors... I have a love-hate relationship with lemon-balm. I love the herb and use it quite often (as pesto with hazelnuts and white cheddar, on baked fish, in stews... ) but the darn thing is just wayyyy too invasive. There is no way I can use everything I weed out, so most of it ends up in the yard waste bin. I don't trust it not to regenerate. Now if we want to talk hitch hikers... Gallium aparine (bestraw) showed up a few years ago... damn thing seeds itself like crazy and is hard to pull out since its weak stems break before you are can get the root, and the root regenerates in nothing flat. At least its an annual, unlike sweet woodruff, so I have a prayer of getting in front of it if I can just keep the tops pulled before they set seed. Herb robert, popweed, creeping buttercups, sheep sorrel, they all came in on their own. Ivy, holly and laurel seed themselves regularly, too, and the occasional cotoneaster from my neighbor's bank of it. Oh, and the "bird cherries" (many of which are probably from the red-leaved plum on the corner of the property). Lawn grasses... that damn "orchard grass" that smothers everything in sight, and loves to come up in t he middle of my Fescues. Now a couple I am watching carefully? Just bought a pot of Nicotiana mutabilis, which has a rep for spreading aggressively from seed. I also have seed of Salvia subrotunda for the hummingbirds I may try and grow, but it also apparently self-seeds, and as an annual that always makes me nervous. Verbena bonariensis didn't persist in my yard, but a neighbor got (from mine?) it and it seeded there for a number of years. Luckily I think they liked it, lol.

Biennials do well here because they fit into the wet/dry season. They start growing with the fall rains then overwinter and bloom in early spring, making seed before things dry out in summer. Some that do well in my yard- Forget-me-nots, which are invasive, Money plant, Lunaria, which comes in purple or white and makes those lovely dry translucent floral arrangements, I'm trying Collinsia, Chinese Houses, but haven't got them sown in fall yet to see how they do.

Received my seeds today! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you Kamil and everyone! I'm just about to go start mine! I even got my favorite color, how's that for cool! Maybe we could do a swap based on color next time...Hm, I might have to start one of those based on purple.... :0) Thanks a bunch guys/gals it was fun!