Good post... I'm interested in this topic as well as I'm in the process of planning out my beds and I have a lot of questions about "layering" bulbs with irises and other perennials.

ttfn
Mystic.

Gottagarden, what do you mean by:
"I use a tree planting bar to get them in so deep while making just a small slit in the ground between those herbacious perennials."
What is a tree planting bar?
Your gardens are a work of art!
Thanks!
~Natalie

I've been pulling out Black Eyed Susans (rudbeckia) in my biggest island bed the past few days. Underneath are reseeding Madagascar Periwinkles, some in open spaces are already starting to bloom. In with these are nicotiana, which I cut back or pull, depending on their color. Behind are spiderwort, which I cut each stem to the ground when they flop. Abyssinian glad foliage is appearing next to Salvia leucantha which will bloom in fall, but the foliage is nice now.

In the upper garden, I cut back echinacea now that it looks ratty. Swallowtail butterflies have abandoned it for all the red/orange goodies around it. Purple coneflower will send up new blooms, but it will not be a butterfly fav here for the rest of the summer asit was in spring.

My older daffodil plantings are mostly dedicated beds that revert to rough lawn for summer. I now plant daffodils on edges and ends of beds and overplant with annuals in some places. My fav daffodil plantings are wide rows of daffodils with daylilies in front which quickly hides the daffs and lilies tucked in somewhere. I overplant daffs with early annual seed, then overplant the early annuals with summer annual seed.

Hyacinths were a problem this year; they took forever and ever to die down and their companions were slow to bulk up where I had large plantings of hyacinths.
I use a post hole digger for deep planting where I need a hole deeper than my bulb planter will sink. I use a lot of summer and fall bulbs like crocosmia, lycoris and glads as well as the expected spring bulbs.

I hope this gives you an idea of how some of my garden changes through the seasons.
Nell

Everything you see in this rather blurry picture, will flower all year with deadheading except the delps. They will be replaced by some later flowering plants behind them.
No earth shows except the path in the lower right.
Underneath all that, is some early snowdrops and mini daffs.
Plants are allowed to 'flow' into each other.

Libby

I'm right there with Gottagarden. You have so much less maintenance if you overgarden. I really only work hard in the early spring and late fall. Here are a few pics I took last week.

I'm not "there yet" but I'm working on it. I'm still tweaking the designs a lot since the outer garden was mostly planted last spring.

I've got the daffodils and Dutch irises figured out and now want to expand the bulbs by planting more this fall and include alliums. I think I may even add some tulips inside my fence. I'm also going to try to sow some seeds this fall...larkspur especially. I'm new to seed sowing!

It's great to see the advice and photos here.

Cameron

Thanks for all the comments and pictures. Very helpful!

GG, what do you do about summer into fall? Spring is bulbs and the foliage can be cut back, but what about summer blooming perennials once fall rolls around? What I do now is have some asters planted so I just have a large area that's just green for several months.

I learned a lot from these posts. I still have daffodil leaves in the front of my beds looking terrible, but still green. Have any of you ever dug up bulbs to replant later? I'll have to check on that.

Another thing I do to fill holes temporarily is to place pots around. I had fun planting a few with the colors of my beds in mind. I am pleased with how they look. I also have a few watering cans here and there, sometimes shading a plant I just put in.
Sue

I guess you could say that I overplant too, particularly in new beds. Aside from giving some instant gratification, you get a hands-on education about the behavior of various plants specific to your own growing conditions. I plant knowing that some plants may get pushed out while others may be moved or removed entirely. I love that experimentation phase of a new bed. In my experience, by about the third year, good seasonal balance begins to occur and the bed is largely established requiring only simple maintenance. This may not be the most cost-effective approach to gardening, but it's how I get my jollies. So, we eat out less.

Steven

lvtgrdn, I dig up bulbs and replant them all the time. Wait until the bloom period is over. If the leaves have died all the way back, even better. Dig them up, shake off the dirt, and you can even dry them out if they are tulips or daffs. In fact, I still have a whole clay pot of these in my garage that I haven't gotten around to replanting yet because I am not sure if I want to--I hated the color of the tulips (I inherited them from the previous owner) and I might just ry to trade them. Then just transplant them to where ever you want to move them. Heck, I have done this in the middle of summer more than once. I am a risk taker (sometimes I learn the hard way) who will move a lily in bloom to another part of the garden because the color clashes with something nearby. Most of the time it doesn't hurt anything, unless you accidentally dig to close and chop off the plant from the bulb.... oops. ;)

Summer into fall is harder, since summer plants don't usually die back. There are several annuals and also dahlias which bloom for months, and these will span from summer to fall. Also the grasses finally sprout their seed heads in the fall.

The fall trick is to pick shrubs and perennials that have nice fall foliage. So even if they are not blooming, the foliage is adding some nice color.

Here's the tree planting bar:

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:733689}}

Scorpiohorizon,
Do you wait until fall to replant the bulbs? I have some grape hyacinths a friend wants some bulbs of. I need to dig those out, too.

Steven, that's what I ended up doing in my new bed. I planted things the "correct" spacing, but saw too much dirt, and kept adding new things. There were a few celocias (sp) that weren't getting tall enough before blooming, and had all these blooms up and down the stem, making it hard to remove them, so I dug most of them out and put them in pots so I could plant something I liked better.
Sue

What's your (all of you) definition of Overplanting?
Does it mean to you putting in more plants than correct spacing for optimal growth...?
Or does it mean seeding annuals on top of bulbs and between perennials, pulling annuals as they are done, pruning back gone-to-seed perennials and tucking in more annuals?

Or does it mean something entirely different?

One thing I see as this thread grows, there is little commonality between zones.
Up east, daylilies are coming into bloom; ours are reblooming.
Some west coast members have perennials blooming almost year 'round that burn out in July here, get cut back and start again in cooler weather.
Some of you in the north have lilies and iris blooming now that bloomed here months ago.
I used to wonder why magazine photos had things blooming together that bloomed separately early spring, mid summer and early fall here. I finally see.

Aside to Steven: Thomas Hobbs says to compare the price of a desirable plant to a new pair of shoes, or dinner and a movie. Your choice.

Nell

Now we're talking, "compare the price of a desirable plant to a new pair of shoes (they wear out), or dinner and a movie (the dinner as well as the movie will soon be just a memory)" but that to die for plant hopefully will thrive, multiply and live for a long, long time. That works for me LOL.
Annette

Words to live by, Annette. :)

You mean I am not the only one who would buy plants before food?

I thought I was nuttier than most. LOL

I'm bringing this back up for the person who asked about thinning plants. I think it pertains to the idea of having lots in the same space. Maybe the reason for the person's dissatisfaction is the timing of the blooms for the things close to each other.

Sue :o)