As you suggest, Rouge, Woody's system is very efficient to use.

I use 10.5 inch square flap envelopes, to contain tags sorted by species, etc... The envelopes are placed (labelled at the top on the back) backwards in a cardboard tray. I think the trays originally contained beer cans.

I've recently edited my two trays down to one, by removing the tags for perennials that have not worked here and that I no longer have/use (e.g. sadly several dozen different penstemons). At this stage, those tags have just been thrown into a draw.

Last question, Rouge.
I'll have to approximate.
Too many!

OMG!!! I should never have looked it up, I keep my tags but usually misplace them so I keep a record on the computer as to what, when and if I have still have it. For 2014 I entered 55 perennials, 5 vines, 2 shrubs, 9 kinds of bulbs, 11 herbs, and went a little crazy on Brugs 8. I think I need a keeper, please tell me this is a healthy obsession.

"...9 kinds of bulbs...."

I didn't even think to include bulbs! I bet I planted easily 300 bulbs/corms the past couple of months.

I shudder to think! I got the plastic card pockets for tag storage but have not gotten around to gathering/washing all the tags and putting them in binders--don't want to rush!

When I think about it, I realize I should've taken at least 5 or 6 more feet of sod off the edge of the borders...Honey? Can we rent the sod cutter again this Spring?!!! LOL

I'm with you, Catkin, gonna move my garden bed out further and get rid of that "nasty grass" we dont need :) and plant more flowers
Oh boy! Spring project!

Still it's so nice to get a break until spring.

"Back to work" in the garden here, comes after a four or five month weekend.

Let me take a stab at this from memory and mentally travelling through my yard:
40 soap aloe, 5 Florida anise, 6 pagoda panticulum (?), 5 hardy hibiscus, 1 bluff oak, 2 camelias, 5 black and blue, 2 red shrimp plant, 15 or so bleeding heart vine clippings, 6 cross vines, 3 fine wine wiegela, 2 jasmine bushes, 3 jacob kline monarda, 2 dutchmans pipevine, 6 native orange milkweed, 2 norfolk island pine, 2 obedient plants, 2 rosemary, 1 greek and 1 cuban oregano, 3 hamburg and 4 flatleaf italian parsley, 4 regular and 4 garlic chives, 2 african blue asil, 16 garlic, 3 mother of millions, and a partridge in a pear tree....I'm sure that I'm forgetting something :)

I have a problem :)
Rhonda

I try not to think too closely about how many plants I buy/plant, but I know it was fewer this year than in several previous years, less than 50 unless you count veggie plants.

Edited to add that a bunch of those were from my pot ghetto. I acquired fewer than 25 or 30 new plants this year.

This post was edited by nhbabs on Tue, Dec 2, 14 at 7:42

no idea....but it is definitely up in the thousands.

campanula, our fearless leader...LOL!

I have a LOT of (weedy) space to fill, an empty greenhouse and an enormous seed collection. In terms of actually buying and planting new plants, I could count them on my fingers...but seedlings, bulbs and cuttings can ramp the numbers up to ridiculous totals such as 1000 or so bulbs planted this autumn and a whole spring and summer of frantic seed sowing..I calculated I would need around 20,000 plants to fill the available space so it is going to be a long haul.

Lucky you 'camp'. I would love lots more space to be able to garden with more abandon.

nhbabs, mentioned potted plants.

Forgot them.

Think it's amazing how much potted annuals can contribute to a perennial garden, for instances, when the bedded perennials are tailing off for the year. Maybe that's especially so for a small garden.

October 2, 2014.

If I go on a buying spree next year as I did this year, I am going to have to annex my neighbors property. They tell me that I need an intervention.

I just spent about $100 for seeds and about $400 this fall by mail order and on-line.

Here is the short list on plants and bulbs:
Aconite, Winter,
Allium-Persian Blue,
Alpine Rosy Bells,
Blackberry (thornless),
Blueberries-New Jersey,
Blueberry Kabluey,
Clematis-Multi Blue,
Crocus Dutch Collection,
Crocus Early Stardrift,
Crocus Saffron,
Crocus, Giant (mix),
Crocus, Monarch Snow,
Crocus, Pink Snow,
Cyclamen, Hardy,
Cyclamen, Silver Leaf,
Daffodil-Quail,
Daffodil/Tulip (Spring Duet collection),
Daffodils (50),
Daffodils-Dbl Campernelle,
Daffodils- Delnashaugh,
Daffodils Giant 8,
Daylily-Little Business,
Daylily-Purple De Oro Dwarf,
Geranium-Blue Fusion,
Hyacinth Fondant,
Hyacinth-Carnegie Giant,
Hyacinth- Giant Blue Grape,
Hyacinth-Grape blue,
Hyacinth- Grape Pink
Hyacinth- Grape Siberian Tiger,
Iris-Beauty Dutch Mix,
Iris- Dutch Mix,
Kiwi- Artic Beauty,
Lily Camas,
Lily- Star Gazer Oriental,
Mum First Lady,
Mum Grandchild,
Mum Silver Bells,
Mum-Cushion mix,
Mum-Monster Mix,
Mum-Red Daisy Monster,
Orange Glory Butterfly Flower,
Phlox- Creeping blue,
Phlox- Creeping pink,
Primrose- Blue Zebra,
Purple Love Grass,
Sedum-Creeping Blue,
Shamrock Bulbs,
Snow in Summer,
Snowdrops-Double,
Spanish Bells Pink,
Spanish Bells White,
Spanish bells blue,
Trillium- Grandiflorum,
Tulip Economy Mix,
Tulip- FireSpray,
Tulip, Forever Mix,
Tulip-Ice Cream,
Tulip, King Edward (25),
Tulip-Mistress,
Tulip- Orange Emperor,
Wigelia Variegated,
Willow Wonder Bush.

The perfect storm is being retired/unemployed, having 1/2 acre estate with gardens that expanded just last year to an additional ~10 into the lawn, and worst of all: a credit card. I guess the total lack of a social life can be factored in too.

All credit cards are paid off and I increased my garden inventory to 284 cultivated plants and they are all plotted in a CAD program. The seeds, OTOH, are my winter project....

This post was edited by Emerogork2 on Fri, Dec 5, 14 at 13:23

Rouge-Apparently I did not have as much fun as some. lol! Most of my time was spent prepping a new bed. I simply count my pots when done planting and it was approx. 80 (keep forgetting to double check).
Like Camanula if I count seeds and cuttings the numbers go up considerably. I don't even want to think about that.
No bulbs for me this year.

nhbabs - LOL about the "pot ghetto" !!!!!!!! Seriously funny! I laughed out loud for a looooong time after I read that the first time, on another thread you posted on! I'm going to start using it!!! Too funny!

As to the question - not sure how many I planted, I'd have to go back through my trade records to estimate how many I got in trades, add in a few I got on clearance at the big box stores . . . this was a huge year for me, first year in the new house, the ability to REALLY garden for the first time, and I started trading this summer and was binge trading for months . . . ! I easily planted hundreds of plants, and I'm winter sowing dozens of types of seeds, mostly natives, so . . . . yeah! I was keeping the plastic tags, I'll have to put them in a binder like you guys, sounds good!
I too wonder sometimes if this is a good obsession, but I always decide in the end that it is!!!! We get exercise, the animals and bugs get food, shelter, etc, nature gets a boost, the environment, too, neighbors get a pretty view (hopefully) . . . win-win for everyone!

Emerogork2, very interesting to your see your list, especially re the very largely spring bulbs planted.

I realize different gardeners have different options and different tastes.

On the other hand, it's difficult not to look at such a list to see whether the gardener has dodged one or more bullets (of course, just ones own prejudices!).

Happy for you to see no Chionodoxa or Puschkinia. I do find that at least the English-Spanish bluebells hybrids that I was give (as English bluebills) seed around a bit, but they're not difficult to keep in clumps.

Happy to see rodent proof (i.e. poisonous) potentially clump-forming daffodils.

I got rid of our winter aconite early, as too much of a random spreader, but it does bloom very early, about the time of the lovely double snowdrops.

I love the non-poisonous crocuses and tulips, but our voles also feel the same way about them. So I replant more each fall.

Chionodoxa or Puschkinia? I am not sure but they may be in the beds already. I inherited the gardens about 15 years ago from my mother who had been developing it since 1950. She did not tke

Her theme was to have sections in bloom at all times of the year and they were set out in order of month. Beds left and right near the house bloom in Feb/Mar. The next section out April, then May and June where they meet in the center back. Crossing over to August, Sept and October where they are in bloom near the house again.

The difficult part is to place them in proper locations the first time and avoid having to move them to correct their locations. Next is keeping track of proper fertilizations. Fortunately few require lime or alkali additives.

The list is probably a one-time effort as I had just discovered on-line nurseries. Most likely, there will not be anything new next year save one or two that strike my fancy.

Next year, I am going to concentrate on developing a spectrum of mums though.

Dodging bullets? I have had a few that I am still trying to fix. (:
There may be a few surprises in this mix though.
Most of that list has not been included in the CAD drawing.

Wow! Love the list and love the drawing. Great job on that!

Emerogork2, professional looking plan.

If I understand correctly, the intent was to have different sections of the gardening blooming at different times. This seems unusual in, at least a small, mixed perennial garden.

Some large perennial gardens like Sissinghurst or Merlin's Hollow are divided into "rooms", functionally different gardens. So the "spring garden" or "alpine garden" is in full bloom in spring and the "Michaelmas daisy garden", in fall.

However, I take the usual plan for a smaller mixed perennial garden to be a large diversity of different perennials in each bed. That diversity should include perennials that bloom at different times in the growing season. The large diversity requires deep flower beds.

This post was edited by SunnyBorders on Sat, Dec 6, 14 at 18:15

Re Chionodoxa and Puschkinia and I could have added Scilla siberica:

Below Chionodoxa luciliae/forbesii (April 16, 2010), moving out from the location in which it was planted. This only takes a few years here. The facts that this spring bulb-plant is a vigorous seeder and poisonous (viz. inedible to the local wildlife) means that it can move into natural environments and threaten native plant species.

My flowers were starting to spread in a similar fashion but when I trimmed the bed with a 4" black plastic border, they remained contained. I figured that they were spreading because they rain would wash them around and they would set root. However, they began spreading uphill.

The garden has been expanded since then as shown. It will be interesting to see how/if they spread.

They also appeared in other beds. Those that ended up in the lawn were cut down with the mower and that is probably why they did not survive.

I also have them around the Star Magnolia and spotted with mini daffodils.

Interesting (and pretty!), Emerogork2.

I previously planted chionodoxa in two gardens, including our own. I believe, in part, that I was spreading the seeds around when working the soil.

I did succeed, after perhaps five years, in eliminating it from those gardens (by eliminating seedlings manually).

Will be interesting to see how your containment actions work.

Containment, in three beds, has been going on for over 10 years.
Very few escapees.

Emerogork2, then I can only say "good work"!

I've noticed chionodoxa running through another local garden here. Last year, it appeared for the first time in the adjacent park.

There are a number of species of Chionodoxa. Perhaps some are less spreading than others.

I do use Chionodoxa 'Giant Pink'/'Pink Giant' in our own garden. It must be a hybrid, but I occasionally see it reverting. It's so useful (bigger, showy and provides blocked colour after the crocuses have) and really isn't a bad spreader. I just keep on top of it.

Chionodoxa 'Giant Pink' (April 15, 2011)

This is my second year of gardening. I keep a spreadsheet but I've never actually taken a tally.

Let's see...

10 roses
9 mini roses
5 hydrangeas
1 peony
12 hostas
47 perennials
2 rose of sharon hibiscus
23 allium bulbs

So... 109 plants? Oh gosh. I shouldn't have done that...

Not knowing which peony you chose, in your next binge, i venture to suggest you look into the "Festiva Maxima". It is bright white with small streaks of stark red.