I try never to have any soil showing at all. I think plants benefit from the mocroclimate they enjoy with proximity and they form a living mulch to conserve moistuere and deter weeds. So I only move if something is suffering. I just don't like the look of blobs.

This year I divided and tossed a bunch of BE Susans and moved some salvias to an area where they can grow more freely. The yarrow under the crape myrtle is turning into a monster, so that may be next. One of my beds is so deep I have to be able to walk into it and that means keeping pathways. I mulch everything with pine straw ... no soil showing.

The bed that I am working on filling out now is 6 feet deep in most places. I have some strategically placed decorative stones here and there right now so that I can stand amongst the plants and work without actually having to create a noticable 'pathway'. As far as dividing, I have found that my dalilies tend to need dividing about every three years depending on how happy they are with their location. Everything else I haven't had long enough to need to divide yet. Most of it was put in last year. But I, too, love that stuffed cottage look and they only way I will divide or move things once they are established is if someone wants a division of a specific plant or if they look to be suffering. I have never been one to follow the instructions on plant spacing that comes on the tags. LOL!!! I will also be taking a wait and see approach with it. ;-)

I usually plant a little closer than suggested and let them grow into one another. No soil showing also means very little weeding if any. I never mulch my established beds where the plants are filled in.

I've been trying to move away from the jam-packed cottage style garden for a few years - without much success, I admit! :-) I'd like to have a little space between the plants so I can more easily mulch, pick flowers, and give the plants some visual breathing room.

What I do every spring is lift and divide older plants, such as lamb's ears, that have died out in the center and look unattractive. I weed out self-sown and deliberately sown seedlings only keeping the best. I move plants every year if I don't like how they are crowded or crowding others.

I think if you are undecided you could take a wait and see approach for awhile altho you might want to move that Russian sage before it takes over.

I think I would keep it steady at the stage where the individual plants are just touching each other. I am not quite at that point yet as I only started landscaping my house when I bought it three years ago. I have to mulch because of the climate where I live. Many of the plants that keep their foliage around where you live lose all their foliage here and winter is so long and so cold, I wouldn't be able to get away with not mulching (three inches of pine needles).

I, too, would only intervene if they really started to threaten each other, blocking out the sun, root competition, etc.

But I already have a plan for when they fill in too much. What I intend to do is to place stepping stones in strategic spots that will allow me to stand on them without stepping on plants and without the neighbourhood being aware of my little jungle path. During the summer, the stepping stones will have potted plants on them, which I will only move when I need to step on the stones. This way, the spot where my stepping stone is is always nicely filled and since there is dense vegetation around it, no one can tell there is actually a pot there. Needless to say, the plants that will be in pots will be those that I would need to bring inside for the winter - this might allow me to have calla lilies, gladioli and lilies of the Nile and show them off, too! You know, have your cake and eat it too? If any of the plants planted directly in the soil take over, I can remove some pots around them to let them roam.

Does anybody see a problem with my idea? It sounds pretty good to me, but somebody here might see a problem I didn't think of.

For the past three years, about mid summer, I have told myself that "next spring I am going to divide this, move that etc. etc." But when spring comes, they dont look overcrowded at all, so I put my time and energy into new beds. Then summer rolls around, and low and behold they are overcrowded again and I tell myself - "well next year........."

This spring I will definitely do some dividing and moving!!

mandolls - lol* I know what you mean though, because in early spring those lil' buggers don't always look like the massive plant monsters they are going to be in a few short weeks. LOL* Lil' liars aren' they? ;)

Viktoria5, I've used stepping stones in various places in my wide beds so the soil doesn't get compacted by indiscriminate walking thru the beds. My DH poured some small 8" concrete stones which work well. I also have a few small stained glass stepping stones that look more decorative. I do use potted plants as fillers in some areas altho don't put them on the stones as IMO it's too much work to have to move them.

Mandolls, I think a lot of us can relate to that! Luckily it's 'the cottage look' so it's good!

I also love no soil showing, and I like a little blending of "areas" but if one gets all up in the other plants space, and begins to oust it out, then I remove that portion. Normally, I get everything filled back in very quickly this way and then I have plants for trade or donation or whatever...Under roses I do not plant anything that will get tall enough to be a pain to get out from there. I tend to grow more ground covers under the roses...they can be a mixture of blooming ground covers to bloom over a longer season, but the tall stuff is so hard to get out when thorns are catching your hair or hat all the time!
There are two spots I LONG to have full and lush which will just not stay thick and lovely. I have no idea why...(I probably have more than one space) The red/white/blue garden is so difficult. I have ammended the soil a million times...still it compacts and stuff dies out. It's thin. I will try fertilizing instead of digging this year, but it is so frustrating I keep contemplating foundation shrubs again....