Kris, wow! you must have two green thumbs, what great looking beds! I have a question, did you dig any of the dirt before you laid the newspaper down? I see you put grass clippings on top of the paper, how did that work out for you? Did it cook the weeds below and how long did you have to wait before planting something in the new beds?

Great progress, Kris, on your ring bed. Others are looking good too. I also have hollyhocks that have been blooming for awhile. They remind me of my grandma's flower beds.

Enjoyed reading your blog. Thanks for posting.

Looking great, Kris.
Congratulations. WS is fun isn't it?

Thanks for the nice comments, everyone. And thanks all for visiting my blog. I have now taken actual individual pics of WS blooms that I will post soon. :-D

Shasta - I went with the modified lasagna method on the 3 new beds because I didn't want to dig anything. I mowed the lawn as short as I could, wet the paper and laid it down, and have been putting all my (and my nabe's) grass clippings over the paper this summer. I'd guess the sod underneath won't be totally dead/broken down until next year. The geraniums are just in pots nestled into the grass clippings so the new/future bed didn't look so bare this year. The caster beans were just an experiment. I dug a tiny hole through the clippings/paper/sod and shoved in sprouted plants with just a tad of fert. Didn't expect any action because the lawn under the paper was rock hard. Still, they are turning out WAY better than I expected. Next year under those 2 beds the sod will be dead then I'll decide then if I'll till or dig or just keep layering with clippings/compost/ etc. I'll keep ya updated on the blog.

Mnwsgal - I've never grown hollyhocks before. These things just amaze me - and anyone who sees them. My property abuts a golf course and I've had golfers hail me and ask for tours just so they could come see the hollyhocks up close. LOL

Pitimpinai - Yeah, WS is some kind of magic. I mean who knew? And boy am I hooked! :-D

Kris

Very Nice!!!!

I hope my butterfly bush seedlings bloom this year, they are still so tiny!!!

Karen

I really like your blog, and your gardening style! I'm amazed at your first-year butterfly bushes, I had to wait for year 2 to get blooms. I'm also surprised and envious of the result you got with your castor beans, since I did practically the same thing one year (with different plants) and had poor little puny plants growing out of the hard soil..

Thanks, Stage_rat. :-D

My style? Haha! If 'make do' and 'what can I use here..." is a style, then I got it in spades! LOL

As to the butterfly bushes (and the lavender) blooming right now, no one is more amazed than I. And today I was checking out my WS plants still in cups and all 5 cups of platycodon now have flower buds on them. It's kinda beginning to sorta creep me out... I keep looking over my shoulder for the other shoe to fall.

Kris (who is NOT (knock wood) superstitious)!

I love that you garden for the bees!

I grew a few things for the bees too! I heard they love borage and horsemint, so I ordered some and WS'd them. Unfortuantely, I had very poor germination - two borage, zero horsemint. (I'll never buy from Seedman again). The borage flowers are very cool and they are cool looking plants too. I will grow them again next year. Have you tried borage?

I was surprised at how much the bees - mostly bumble - loved the forget-me-nots. I was also surprised at how long they were in bloom. This was my first year getting them to grow and bloom - thanks to WSing them! They never grew where I planted them before but I've had a small clump growing in the middle of my grass for years. (Go figure, don't even remember dropping seeds there, but, there they are, thriving.)

They were all over my nasturtiums too.

I love your blog - I'm taking notes for next year!

October17 - So glad you enjoy my blog. It's a lot of fun and I'm learning lots every month. No I've never grown borage. In fact I just had to go and Google it as I'm not familiar with it. What a nice blue flower. My Mom has forget-me-nots and she does get lots of bee traffic on them. Until just a few days ago I didn't know that the monardas I WS'd (citriodora and punctata) are also known as horsemint. (And I didn't know they are annuals, not perennials). The bees are just all over them. I hope you have better luck WSing them this coming year.

My new fave is lavender hyssop - I'm trying to find a way to record the intense buzzing I can hear from several feet away - so many bees at once on those plants. Would be fun to include the buzz on the blog somehow...

Kris

Kris, been wondering what you're up to! Now I can see! :) Yours beds look wonderful - they are off to a great start. Can't imagine how they're going to look in a few years with your green thumb.

I am jealous that your Yvonne's is blooming already. Mine is not even close.

Btw, Monarda punctata is more of a perennial - most of mine came back for a 2nd year, and in huge bushy clumps. Not sure if they are short-lived or not. M. citriodora is definitely annual but will reseed.

I like to plant for all the pollinators too, and another plant I've discovered the bees go absolutely NUTS over is Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa aka Actaea racemosa). This is more of a shade plant, makes this tall airy white plumes, blooming now. The bees practically roll around and fall over themselves on the blooms.

Hi Terrene - long time, no see! So many of your gift seeds have made a HUGE impact on my bee/pollinator populations! :-D

Just Google'd the black cohosh. Wish I had a shady spot for it, it looks splendid.

Today was a real treat for me. A couple of friends came by and while we were walking around the ring bed, I noticed that the resident Monarch finally found a friend after 4 weeks of circling. So we watched them and lo and behold, one of them was laying eggs on milkweeds. My friend had his camera and took some pics and when he emails them to me I'll post shots on the blog. I'm so excited!!

Kris