vivian has good advie. in addition, i might suggest that rather than continue to let them 'drown out' your smaller perennials etc. this year, you divide and move them now or just after they flower, if you prefer. Fall dividing is really the best time because days are cooler, but if you have more time now, do it now. just cut them back by 1/3 or so to help relieve the stress of being moved. keep well watered. and if you have to plant them in a very sunny spot, and it is hot, try to rig up a shade screen for the plants so they can settle in w/o frying to a crisp. the plants you have mentioned are very robust growers(i.e. 'thugs'!)unlike daintier perennials. best, mindy

Thanks everyone for the comments, and complements on the pooches. They are great dogs! Oscar the brown dog just came from a terrible shelter and has already made huge improvements, he wants to be a gardener, and sticks his nose into the plants I'm growing inside. Meya the black dog likes to eat wood chips and dig where I've already dug, sometimes digging up plants. Today I was at the grocery store and they had perennials locally grown for 2 for 3$, and I just had to buy them. I'm so impatient to plant something! I've decided to fix up the area in front of the porch so I can have something growing while I work on the other areas. These are the plants I have in mind to go there: tickseed, a maroon blanket flower, hollyhocks, sea thrifts, rudbeckia peonies,(my mom gave me some roots from costco, so who knows if they'll grow) liatris, lillies (some yellow and red type I bought in a bag, I don't know what kind) I'd like something purple or blue in the mix, but it seems like a lot of stuff for that area. I'm planning on planting a climbing/rambling rose I've ordered in front of the stairs to train along the railing, and finding some yellow rose to plant on the other corner of the porch. I looked at some clematis, and thought that might look good on the other side of the porch as well, but I'm not sure and I didn't like any of the colors/types they had. I just want to feel like I'm actually gardening and not just working on the chain gang digging dirt. Of course if it keeps raining and snowing these new plants might have to take up residence on the patio with my other pots for some time!

Great question! Delphinium grandiflorum - this is the low growing delph. Much easier to grow, same fantastic blue color. Salvia - I grow lots of different sages, both hardy and tender in this zone. Fantastic, easy care, every color of the rainbow. Alcea Rosea (Hollyhock) - yes, they get rust, Japanese beetles love them and they seed, but nothing says cottage garden like a hollyhock. Columbine - a personal favorite for its grace. Nepeta (catmint) - so easy to grow. blooms almost all summer. Echinacea - I grow Magnus, the old standby. Start with one, in three years you'll have ten, in five years enough for all your friends. Siberian Iris - so unfussy. Beautiful plant with no disease or pest problems. Lychnis coronia (rose campion) - I love the silver foliage and the hot magenta flowers. Makes a bold statement in the garden. Achillea (yarrow) - Love the flower clusters combined with something spikey. Plumbago - not hardy in my zone but I love the sky blue flower clusters. Snapdragons - only the tall kind (rocket). Yes, it's an annual but no cottage garden should be without it.

You've got pros here making good suggestions. I especially like DigDoug's planter on the left. What this amateur would do: You might transplant the tall thing in the middle of the right window into the right corner, if possible. Make sure it is located a couple of feet away from the walls. Caveat - it looks like it might be a viburnum (I can't really tell), so there is the risk that it will grow too large for the spot without yearly pruning. I don't care for the shape and density of the smaller shrubs and would take them out, perhaps put in a couple of small clumping grasses, or small variety of azalea or rhododendron (if not too sunny there for them) or weigela, or a different, small (dwarf or compact) evergreen with more interesting form and color for winter interest instead. Leave plenty of space between plants, you don't want a solid wall or row. Prune the japanese maple to open up the structure to a more open, lacey look. Getting a good arborist to do it is best. Left corner/left windows. You are right, there is too much stuff. Thin the grasses (or are they daylilies?) surrounding the blue flowering plant to just be accents, not a solid mass. Thin the hostas also. Are those Hellebores in between the hostas? I don't love the boxwoods in front of the window, but you need something evergreen - if those are hellebores, they will do - see how you like it after the hostas have been thinned, but I might remove the boxwoods, move the large hellebores back, and transplant some of the heuchera that is below the maple to be interspersed with/ spaced out in front of them.