What is growing in your yard---type of flowers , veggies or fruits. Mine is lavender.

[biophile]

15. Lavender is one of my absolute favorites!

The anise hyssop is tied with lavender. It’s one of the first to come up, it flowers from July until hard frost or freeze, it gets tall and doesn’t flop, stays green in dry spells (takes a lot to make it wilt, although it will eventually if it’s super dry), isn’t a bully to other plants, bees love it and reseeds nicely. I have a lot of it around the pool- smells nice and no thorns or harsh stems.
But I’m with you on cutting back; it’s getting to be a lot for me in these later years.