Your house is gorgeous! I love that color. I would have SO much fun if I had my very own home that we owned. But, it'd be all trial and error - so I'm no help. But, I wanted to come by and say howdy. :frog:

Still :walk: each evening. :yes: I am down another pound. Wahoooo!

Have a terrific Thursday! Warmly, Robin

1. Decide where the grass begins and ends. Use spray paint or stakes or whatever to mark it.

2. Invest in some edging, plastic or rocks or railroad ties whatever. Have the kid put in edging and do weeding and/or mowing of grass.

3. Sit on the porch, drink iced tea and celebrate the fact you've done the first step. Watch your kids do their tricks on the swingset, etc.

4. buy a bag of potting soil, some mulch, and some more dividers.

5. tackle the front yard first. Don't even think about the back yard this year. Do that next year if you're done with the front.

6. Take your time. Remember some English cottage gardens take 50-75 years to establish. You don't need to be in a hurry about this. You're reclaiming wilderness - you're caring and tending for land God gave you. Like anything worthwhile it takes time and sweat. Fortunately you have a young man willing to do the sweat part. :o)

7. Use more dividers to define one area from another (stake out and let kid install) using the things you KNOW you want to keep (e.g. scilla, large bushes) as a guide. He can put any surprise bulbs or growing plants he disturbs in ice-cream buckets or yogurt containers full of dirt for now. I bet Mom has some if you don't have enough.

8. tackle one area at a time, starting with what you are sure of. Have the kid weed, or completely dig up and replant, or prune, or whatever's necessary for that subdivision. Mulch as necessary.

9. If there's an area you don't like but don't know what do do with it, plant some annuals if you can still get those at the store, or some small easily moved perennials. This time of year, shop the clearance rack at Meijer's or Walmart. Or use the bulbs/plants you just dug up when you subdivided.

10. If there's some weird plant you've always wanted to try, now's your chance. Order it, figure out which area it would look best in (and survive in) and do that area next.

11. When you're ready, go to a 'real' greenhouse and talk to people who know something. Explain what you want to do and ask their advice for plants "I want something about a foot high, low maintenance, non-invasive that will grow in clay soil and full sun" or whatever. Again, do it one area at a time. (for financial reasons as well as sanity!) You might want to wait until next spring if they're really picked over. Pay the extra $$ a real greenhouse costs. It will pay for itself if they can answer you intelligently when you have questions.

12. Buying the smallest size of the shrub or plant or tree will save you $$ and from what I've read they handle transplant shock much better and actually grow faster. But you aren't in a hurry, remember :o)

What the photos of the cottage garden don't reveal is that they too are always in progress. Even after it's been defined you can change your mind... and even if you don't, you need to replant the annuals and/or divide the perennials. Some plants need to be whacked back every year by as much as half because they were designed for tall grass prairies, not suburban yards. Even in cottage gardens they look awful when whacked. But that's when you take a picture of something else!

Hope that's helpful and not daunting. Remember also that people used to hire gardeners full time for cottage gardens. So cut yourself some slack too :o) I like your yard, wilderness and all!

If you're going to use spring bulbs, why not leave an area just planted with some annuals for now, since you won't be able to dig in those bulbs until the fall anyway.

Perennials are great, once they get established.

Hey, I just thought of something. My sister is a great gardener too. Why don't you and I go sit in the shade and have a coffee and let our sisters do the work?

I thought Kelly's suggestions were great. Especially the ones about establishing the edge of the garden and then starting in sections.

As I read your blog, I thought that perhaps this is not the "flower" time of your life, but the low maintenance shrub time of your life.

So my advice would be to keep your shrubs in the front and tear out everything else. Put down weed barrier and then mulch. Once that is done, the kids can pull weeds that make it through the barrier or near the base of the shrubs. That is how my landscaping is done (thanks to previous owners) and I or one of the kids weed it in less than 20 minutes every other week or so. If you get a bare spot once everything is gone, put in another small shrub.

You could put your bulbs in the backyard where you can enjoy them or in one section out front with no weed barrier, just mulch. I only have a few bulb plants in among the shrubs, but I think that whoever put them in there, cut a hole in the weed barrier so that the bulbs can come through. I would love to put in some Iris but the shrubs work for me right now when I am busy with young children.

Karen
ps. FYI: When gardeners put in weed barrier, they cut holes or X's where the plants are to go.

Another thing I have found really helpful is Round-Up. I don't pull weeds anymore. :goodjob:

Do let us know what you decide to do...

:coffee:

Finally I realized what the issue was. You can have your yard set up like she says, so it's quick to weed. You can have it neat and tidy. You can have lots of colorful flowers. You can garden inexpensively. But you can't do all four... and even three is a stretch. :bummed:

I guess you'll have to rank your priorities and stick to them... which might mean a LOT of gardening work... or might mean an unruly yard... or might mean spending money on quality plants, weed control, etc... or might mean a fairly 'boring' yard with just shrubs.

I did decide you could also do Karen's route and then have a few pots of annuals, though, if you couldn't live without color outside after the squill are done :wink: