The first picture was taken a couple of years ago just before the annual tearing out of the forget-me-nots. this is my garden nymph (one of UniQue Treasures creations) in the sweet william.

Beautiful, Kathleen! And definitely the Cottage Garden design concept, made to work for your setting...which is what most of us are working toward. Those plants that I annually rip out are what I call space holders, they keep areas of the garden pretty till I have something else I want to plant there.

Do the 'rip outs' get holding space somewhere else? John found a stray foxglove among some weeds. the 'gloves' were planted there years ago.

I used to try and move the foxgloves, but I've found that if I just leave them until they are done blooming and then take the seed stalk and scatter it where I really want them that it works better.

I am trying laying the tall verbascum and foxgloves on the ground
where I would like them come up. Of course, if they do, it will be
in the hundreds.

I am trying an experiment of foxgloves. It is not in any propagation book I think. I cut off the stalks that had blooms and have green seed pods and proliferations at the joints where the leaves start coming out. I pulled off the small plants and put them in a community pot to grow on. It has only been
a couple of days, but so far so good. One of the larger off shoots actually has some roots- this is a very good sign that the
plant wants to keep growing and making plants.

I don't know about Virginia, but up here, there isn't as much of proliferation as one would think. I always have foxglove, but not always in numbers. Some years are thinner than others. I guess it depends on the conditions.

I have tons and tons of foxgloves. The key I think is to plant them for a few years, since they are biennial, to get them going. Now I have regular re seeding, so I don't have to replant.

A friend, Le Bug has started foxgloves for me for a couple of years, and they are doing so very well. I just love them.

I have seedlings under lights; I hardened them off; I have
Excelsior, Gloxiniaflora, and Giant Herold Yellow. They are ready
to put out.

This was just an experiment and it is working as of now.

Lucy, I forgot to answer your question about the "rip outs"- typically I just weed them out. Things like pink evening primrose, Nigella, and other rapid spreaders and heavy reseeders. There's plenty left when I'm done, and the next year you can't even tell any have been removed.

Thankfully we're getting adequate rainfall this year, so the Foxgloves are happy. They're one of my favorite cottage garden plants, and the first 2 years I lived here we had droughts, so getting them established was a real challenge. I started several kinds this spring and had a few blooms this year from some started last year- hopefully I've got a cycle of yearly bloom started.

I wanted to put some in this year, but John wanted to amend soil first. We've been so bush in the iris garden plus very hot weather, that it hasn't been done. Of couse when late fall cold weather starts there will be time to do that.

Neal!! I just discovered this article. I am not much of a reader,thats my excuse.
Your garden plan and timing are similar to mine, unemployment too altho I am retired and living with my children.
I also started in '07, not as much acarage as you have, but the cottage garden is the way to go if you need to put plants in fast.
Your gardens are just beautiful. I especially love the Fata Morganas with poppies and the Foxtails and the little red flowers(look like Geum).
The ambling nature of the gardens makes them viewable drom many directions.
Thanks for the article.

Gloria, I'm not sure I'm understand what you wrote about the Verbasiums and foxgloves. Are you laying them on the ground after they are finished blooming so their seeds drop in a specific area? Do you cut them down and then lay them down? It is not your explanation, just my reading comprehension so don't be offended. What do you mean by proliferations at the joint? Are these plants reseeding themselves and starting new plants where you have laid them down? Can you or somebody else that reads this explain what Gloria means or is accomplishing there? I wished I could see Gloria's gardens. The way she writes about her flower beds and what all she has planted makes me feel it must be beautiful to look at.

Kathleen, what variety is that pretty pink Sweet William? How tall does it get to be?From the picture, it looks like it is solid color..is it? Why did you rip out one of my favorite flowers?(Forget-me-nots) Were they kind of reseeding and taking over the bed? They look so beautiful in the photo. I only wished they bloomed for the entire summer. It is difficult to find many blue plants that will give blooms all summer long. If there any, I'm not aware of it or can't think of it now is more like it!

Kelly, do you mind listing some of the plants you have in that new flowerbed where you have a bench and pavers? Will you be adding some other plants in that bed that had various heights eventually? That area looks like I'd like to sit on that bench and enjoy all the surounding beautiful flowerbeds you have created. Do you have a slideshow of all your flowerbeds somewhere that we can see?

Pardon me if I dont mean to steal the thunder here.
I have an album of how I made a Lasagna style garden and how it progressed from March 2009 to last July.
Its the garden from hell,clay and rox. Every plant has to go in with peat and compost or it doesnt stand a chance.
http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4...

Pippi, I really don't know the variety of the sweet william. My dad gave me a bunch of seed and they have been crossing and reseeding for about 10 years now. I pull out the forget-me-nots because if I didn't, nothing else would stand a chance. They are horrible reseeders and for biennials, seem to spread with lightening speed. Have you ever tried Chinese forget-me-nots, Cynoglossum I believe? I had some from a 'wildflower' mix and they bloomed through the summer. Also, Salvia patens, which would probably be a perennial for you, is a WONDERFUL blue and blooms profusely. California bluebells, Phacelia campanularia are a wonderful blue as well.

JoAnn, I love your garden tour. The moth mullien seem to come and go quickly here, too. I had some reseed for a couple of years, and then poof! they never came back. the Baptisia Moonlight is beautiful. I think I need one of those to go with my blue.

thanks Kathleen

I hope to remember to plant the Cal. poppy & calendula seed this yr.

Thanx Jo for the slide show. I am so glad that the gardeners are getting active again. Since I am not winter sowing I am feeling the pain of no gardening. Hope we get lots more posts and pictures. Great to see and hear from old friends.

Beautiful Kathleen!

Pippi, no slideshow, suffered from a broken camera most of last summer! Finally got a new one, and it croaked on vacation over christmas. Have sent it to be repaired... keeping fingers crossed. I've actually never had a camera die on me until now, had previous ones last until they were so out of date I needed new ones.

The photo above was taken in the spring or early summer. A there was quite a bit of height later in the season. But, I have in there a camelia, a gardenia, and a dwarf mock orange towards the back/neighbor's yard. When they get a little height on them it should block the view of the electrical box. Then I had some foxgloves, japanese anemones and milkweed(a little too tall... but loved the monarchs in August-October. Also some mums (started from small plugs but got nice sized by fall), a peony, coneflower, lots of columbine, campanula, petunias and alyssum, a couple of ornamental tri-color peppers, some coral nymph salvia, Salvia may night, helianthus... and I'm forgetting a bunch. Had too much going on in there, but it was fun and there was always something blooming! I can't seem to settle down to a theme or pattern...

Our garden beds suffer from creeping shade. One has a reprieve as a couple big pine branches came down in the winter storm.