@owasco, it occurs to me that part of your apparent ease dealing with conquering alien hordes is that you're working in a smaller space than my own seven acres of wetland, woodland, clay, savanna (dry prairie) and other crazy-different ecosystems on one little acreage. I try not to laugh at those who complain about shoveling their driveways in town--mine is longer than a football field and I've hand-shoveled the heavy, wet snow many times.

Smaller scale gardening... that would simplify my life. My own sister scoffed at me for pulling weeds in my "Little Forest" - called it a waste of time! - but she hadn't seen the purple haze of wild geranium blanketing the understory. Didn't see my bluebell colonies. Didn't consider that restoring a little piece of my world is a mission to me, my most valuable contribution aside from being a blood donor, but that is another chapter...

This is very much how my yard looks, except that so many of my natives perished (my pairie smoke! rattlesnake master! Leadplant! and voles at all but one of the 80 liatris bulbs I planted along the long driveway!): Micro prairies: No yard is too small to go with earth-friendly native plants via @journalsentinel