Wow you did really well for your first year! nice gardens

Just beautiful, VV!! I especially like the curved "edging" of alyssum. Your home must have great "drive up" appeal with your wonderful flowerbeds.

Debby

Love the richly colored snapdragons! Everything looks great ... so neat and I don't see any weeds. I like that there are lots of curves in your gardens and not just straight lines.

Thank you so much! I was really inspired by all the lovely pictures I saw here. While I have gardened for a few years, I have never had alot of luck with seeds before. With a new bed configuration this year, I needed to really fill in with annuals until I can afford a few more perennials and shrubs that I want. (Though I'll keep some annual areas, too.)

The weeds - well, DH and I have worked really hard at the weeds and finally got a truckload of mulch down to (I hope) keep down the weeds some. (Bermuda grass has roots that go straight to hell!)

I also ws some perennials which you can't really see in the pics - I put them in a sheltered spot this spring and will give them permanent locations in the fall - columbine, flax, sweet williams, and violas. I also have ws yellow hibiscus in these beds that I forgot to mention before - but it hasn't quite bloomed yet.

I could never have been so successful this year without the advice here!

Very nice job. It looks so professional.

Paula

Okay, vesper - that's it!! Your gardens are so neat, I am going to tear mine apart tomorrow and weed!

You did a great job - love everything and it was only your first year - wait until next year - it's addicting..

Carrie

Your beds are just beautiful!! Good job,and now that you have found the Winter Sowing bug, you'll be with us for quite awhile to get in all the perennials, LOL.

Alberta

very very nice!! I am impressed. You have a knack for designing gardens. Well done!

Wait...did you say you were buying perennials? Why? Remember what forum you're in. Start them in early fall, plant them out early so they can get established before winter. Cover them with shredded leaves and mulch long before the ground freezes. And you'll have more perennials next year than you can shake your wallet at.

Looks good. Wintersowing isn't just for annuals. :)

Beautiful.
I bet you are the envy of the neighborhood.
share the knowledge.
this is my first yr W.S. too

Laura

OK, I have mulch envy now. Your beds are so neat looking without being stuffy at all!!! Great job all around. This forum IS so helpful and inspiring.

Again - thank you all for the kind words! Yes, I did ws some perennials this year and will be doing more next year. I will be buying a few particular varieties of daylilies and more bulbs (love those daffodils!). I don't have the patience to wait for shrubs from ws right now! (Maybe later for the wooded are I'm planning to create in the back - the trees will take awhile to grow anyway.)

The only other perennials I might buy are ones that I want a particular hybrid of and can't find seed for it. I collected a ton of columbine seeds from my own plants already, so I'll be growing more of those and probably trading some seeds, too. I will soon be addicted to both ws and seed trading, no doubt!

By the way, Carrie, the weeding has gone well because DH (who doesn't really garden) has found an unexpected obsession with keeping the Bermuda grass and other weeds out of the new beds. He has helped alot, and my expectation is that once the beds are better established, it won't be so much work to keep them clear of weeds - especially if we keep the mulch on them.