Reprieve and Replan

The lilac has gotten a reprieve. The weather has been hot and dry so I figured I needed to give it at least a fighting chance of survival and wait til we got some more rain. It arrived today. So, Tues. is the next day off and unless it's absolutely pouring I'll be transplanting the lilac as well as planting a few other things I've got. Maybe I'll even get some more weeding done. It seems like a non-stop task but I try to make it easier by using weed barrier and bark dust. I have 2 cannas that started coming up so when hubby decided to mow I covered them with large tubs to ensure their survival. (He's been known to spray or mow down some of my plants.) Accidentally of course ; ) Well, while I was at work he mowed again. I'm now down to 1, but hopefully it'll come back. I hadn't weeded around these things yet but there were lots of tall grasses and weeds to show where he avoided mowing last time. I had uncovered them so they got the sunshine so the tubs were sitting off to the sides. One of them he spotted because the foliage is purplish. The other one was green however and apparently he's not a canna foliage aficionado and didn't see it. (Note to self : Get cement blocks to surround cannas and any other plants I want to keep alive.)
So you see it's not all my fault the plants die.

lilac^

panorama of backyard

I've been trying to plan what to do differently with the backyard. We've decided to expand it further back and to move the swings out a different direction. I have a small plastic pond to put in still and am trying to figure out where to put it. I want to be able to see it from the deck but I don't want it under a tree where it will get a bunch of leaves in it. Any ideas would be helpful. The picture makes the yard arc a bit but it's actually straight across. The wood supports were for the swings. The small plant between the two larger ones is the lilac. It's been that size for about 5 years. :(