Totally! But trying to decide where to put something is part of the fun, I think. I have a couple holding beds and odd corners of other gardens where I can stash a plant for a year while I madly read garden blogs and look at other peoples garden pictures for inspiration. If I still end up with too many plants, I bring them in to my garden club to auction off. It's an easy way to make sure they get a good home, and someone else gets a neat plant that they probably can't find in a typical garden center.

I can't say I am indecisive about choosing which ones to sow, however. I usually get really obsessive over a few different varieties every year, so those are the ones I start sowing first (unless they are tomatoes, then I have to control myself until later, LOL. I just go down my list of priorities until I run out of steam.

drippy - you're in good company (relatively speaking of course). I was faced with thousands of WS seedlings looking for homes and felt like I was in front of a firing squad that would shoot to kill unless I assigned each of them a spot in a flowerbed. Problem was the flowerbeds were under construction last year so there wasn't anywhere to put them. I have a slightly (read limited) better idea of what to plant where this year but have a lot less time to spare for planting. I'm guessing 'plunk 'n run' will be the order of the day again and I'll just have to steel myself they'll need to be rearranged at some point down the road when I find the time.

i too have this disease! i have a few corners like lois and put plants there if i am unsure about them. i have a few old wheelbarrows with no wheels anymore that i also use to store plants temporarily until i can figure out what to do with them-- barrows make good planters :) i am not afraid to move a plant either; they usually don't seem to suffer any harm in the long run although they may be stunted for a year.

i have no idea what i am going to do with all the things i have wintersown lol! i am going to have to make many many new bes but the weather won't cooperate-- rain, hail, snow, repeat.

I will see if I have your problem this year. I started WSing and just plunked things in where they would fit, and found out last year the gardens were 'not working'. I also found I had got tired of some things, and wanted to experiment with new ones. So I took almost everything up last fall, and will have new beds to plant. I have a certain idea of where I will put what, but I am sure I'm going to get going, and my 'plan' will be gone with the wind. In any case, it'll be new.

My system does not require planning. I look at my garden with plant in hand and see where would feel right.
There it goes.
If necessary I move it, and never lost a plant thru moving.

My situation is different than most of you, in that I garden at a community garden, not a house. If I were gardening at my house, I would be more interested in creating a palatte, and having things work. As it is, I have 3 rectangles to fill in.

This is the start of my 11th year of gardening, and as years go by, I see that I like certain colors in certain places and certain heights and such.
That is the only planning I do.

I make beds, and change beds, but it's always in the moment. :)

One thing about the garden: Nothing is forever.

Ellen, I like your style. Keeps the blood pressure low! :)

I finally got past the veggies today - veggies are easy to plant out because they all have time frames to work with, and if they don't make a pretty patch, at least they're edible. I added two kinds of broccoli to the veggie beds today.

I planted out lupine and oriental poppies in my front bed, and calendula officinalis in what will eventually be my herb garden (right now has more ornamentals than herbs). So it finally begins!

The hardest part of any job is starting.

I too, have not made a decision on where to put what. I am making raised beds. I will plant most of the annuals in them. The perennial design, is got me scratching my head. Most of it will depend on what survives.

Last year, I just plucked and planted,made many mistakes,shorter plants in the middle,in front taller ones, but I at least got all 300 containers planted, and how many plants i do not know,I know they will have to rearranged this year, with my 200,but I have a better idea of what I am doing,and what colors I am working with,I agree, in gardening,nothing is forever.
Gardenweed, on the other hand, has a great design all planned out,it looks really nice.
cAROL

I also have that problem with an added twist - I have spent the last few years as caregiver for my mother and kinda gardened haphazzardly. Now I can devote full time to gardening and have found that my body isn't what it use to be so we are in the process of revamping gardens to more shrubs and easy care. My desire however is to have everything planted and a riot of color so here I sit with far too many plants started and unable to plant them all. Local plant swap is the 23rd of April so I think many of them will end up there - I just need to control myself and not bring too many other plants back with me....decisions, decisions ......

Lynne

I have this problem too. Gardening and shaping the landscape are partly an artistic endeavor for me, but it's an art that evolves slowly over time - seedlings have to grow up, shrubs and trees slowly get bigger, plants end up taller or shorter than expected, etc. Usually it takes me years to figure out what works and end up transplanting tons of plants around every year anyway. Perhaps some gardening design software would be helpful.

Winter-sowing only makes the problem worse, lol! It's so easy to start WAY more plants from seed than I know what to do with. Oh well, such a terrible problem to have... :-P

Terrene, do you have any pictures of your flower gardens to show us?

Starting, of course, makes you bold enough to continue. Yesterday I grabbed a container of Autumn Glory sunflowers, and after planting a few here and there in gardens, I dug holes in the grass along my fence & planted 5 more - no real garden there yet, and no time to make one, but I figured, what the heck? I mow the lawn, so there's no danger of DH or DS mowing them down.

However, last night Br'er Rabbit greeted me at the driveway when I pulled in after work. I think he came to thank me for the nice lunch I provided.

Drippy you are doing well - at least your are circling the garden. My headway to date has been to check the containers (all 600+) at least once a day to see what has germinated. Then I enter them into the computer spreadsheet and add them to the plot plan. This is keeping me very busy and preoccupied - like timing contractions. I know when it gets warm enough here to place them out I will disregard all plans and "plunk and run". Best wishes to you.

Dorothy (Meadows)

I have fewer than a dozen sprouted WS milk jugs out of nearly 300 but I know once it warms up some the rest will begin to pop. I have plenty of garden to hold them all--the problem is fitting them in so they create the "look" I'm aiming for, which is basically eye candy from every angle. I started this project last year by dividing a bed that was 30 ft. square and setting a granite bench smack in the middle. Behind the bench there are close to 3 dozen clumps of daylilies that have been there 15+ years, along with a row of double pink peonies, a mature clematis, bearded iris, sedum, Russian sage and a few miscellaenous perennials.

Here's the "before" shot:

{{gwi:380519}}

That's a mature lilac bush on the right. To the left is a 40 ft. long row of mature white hydrangeas. The bench is set at an angle so that whoever sits on it is facing my free-form, curved butterfly bed. A pure white rose of Sharon is planted a few feet behind the bench.

I'm planning to take pictures from this same angle as the season progresses and will post them for everyone to see the later views as well.

This is a shot of my design plan. There are lots more plants drawn on it since this was taken but it should give you an idea of what I'm shooting for.

{{gwi:371767}}

Comments? Suggestions? Opinions? I'm flying by the seat of my pants on this one so I'm wide open to ideas.

When I was in middle school, Mr. Klar, my earth science teacher, gave us a lab project I've never forgotten. Each of us had a beaker to be filled with measured amounts of big rocks, small stones, gravel, sand, and water. He had clear containers of each on his desk, to show us what the correct volumes looked like. Everything had to fit in the beaker with nothing sticking out. I think the entire class was thinking, "No way." He told us before we started that the only way we could fit everything in was to "put the big rocks in first." Big rocks, then smaller ones, then smaller yet, working down to the water which went in last. Each progressively smaller particle filled in around the bigger particles. With a little wiggling so the chunks could settle into place, everything fit. He made sure to tell us that this lesson applied to everything in life.

I garden this way. Big stuff goes in first. The really big items like buildings, trees and paved surfaces are already in place, so I plan around them. I pay attention to where the big plants go and have a plan for them. Even if a big plant is frost-tender and gets planted last (like six-foot cannas), I decide where that big plant will go and mentally reserve a spot for it first. Medium stuff goes in next, around the big stuff. Little stuff gets planted last, via plunk and run, wherever I can squeeze it. As plants grow they get shifted as necessary. I'm never sure ahead of time where everything is going to go and I'm always amazed when the pieces fit together.

Edie

I'm the plunk and run type.

I didn't sow that much this year, about 20 containers. After very tough weather last year with heat and drought, I expected a lot of loss over winter. But the the established plants are slowly popping up and I have no idea where I'll stick the new stuff now.

Karen

plunk and run, baby!

short in the front and tall in the back

seeds belong in the ground not in boxes -sow what you MUST have and give away the rest. gogogogogogo

Yes, but I have ADHD, so I pretty much approach everything in my life that way. LOL!

I actually did the design thing this time. Made a plan of what the property looks like, where the buildings, large trees, shade, etc. are. Made a spreadsheet list of what is already in the ground, when does it bloom, color,and height. Sorting the list by color/height/bloom time made a lot of sense, and now I know what needs to be moved and where to create a more cohesive, beautiful "look."

Of course, that was over the winter, when I had time to plan, and think. Now that spring is here it's plunk & run! I have a good idea of what will go where, but my existing plants have spread and grown so much that I just have no room left for any more plants!

I was thinking this year I would start by setting all the jugs in the garden where I plan on planting them. I'm thinking doing this first will save me so much time, I will be able to get everything in the ground faster and won't have to worry about running around and watering everything repeatedly. I saw this in someone's photo a year or two ago, where all the jugs were placed in the garden first.

This year I made some notes on the jugs for this purpose. I noted the color of flower on some I know I would forget and actually noted where in the garden I wanted some special plants to go. We'll see if this is a good plan once I try and execute it. LOL

Beatrice..are you for hire? Sounds like you are very organized and that's a gift. My intentions were to only plant 36 milk jugs..Opps! there are about 83 and I want to start WS my zinnias by end of this week. Am in process of planting out the one's that can be planted out now. I try to visulize what the approx. height is of a plant and look for some bare ground where nothing is planted and there the WS seedling goes. If it happens to be HOS..it's going in there like that.
If I don't like it this year, I'll dig up and move it.