The Stumpery Border

Two years ago my husband and I started to expand the dry shade border in the hidden part of our backyard. The border is surrounded by pines and various types of ligustrum (privet). Ian removed a ligustrum from another area in the yard and saved the stump cuttings. The stumps had an artistic quality, so we kept some of them. I'm always looking for natural art in the yard. Last weekend we made two spontaneous purchases to add to this challenging area: Blue Moon phlox divicaria and Prelude pieris japonica. They look good now, but of course the challenge in the South is will they survive our late summer heat and dryness? The third photo is a view into the fern bed (see mushroom man). The foliage is from last year, so not a great view at the moment. I'm not seeing any fiddleheads yet, but a couple of hostas are emerging. The goal is to have a sea of green with different textures. These photos were taken on the day of a wind storm, hence all of the catkins on the ground. I also suffered a direct pine cone hit on the head for the phlox photo. I'm becoming the intrepid backyard photographer.