That's my dream yard! Alas, I do not conquer anything. I let it be for the most part. Garlic mustard has killed more desirable plants than I can remember (comfrey, lilies, valerian and eupatorium among them), and now the lamium is coming along and killing the garlic mustard. It's a good thing I think lamium is pretty. Vinca keeps poison ivy down.
I have never been able to grow two things here - echinacea and lavender. The echinacea, supposedly deer resistant, is one of the first plants deer reduce to stubble. Lavender just will not grow here, no matter where I plant it.
RE: Agony in the Garden, by the Decade