actually, you did well to hold off and see what bloomed. Its never too late to clean.

the tiny little flowers are probably weeds. If you don't like them and they don't contribute to the garden aesthetics, they are weeds.

by all means, mulch. You may want to consider a soil test and/or add a light layer of compost before mulch.

When we bought our house 3 years ago we closed in July, so I inherited a highly neglected garden in mid-summer. It had been neglected for years, even to the point that I found a stone walkway completely covered underneath 2-3 inches of Siberian iris and daylily roots. I waited a bit to see what bloomed, and, knowing nothing about plants, took the blooms that interested me to the local nursery for an ID. I spent hours weeding. I know I ripped out some bulbs and spring blooming plants, but what else could I do? The next year I saw some Dianthus blooming in the scrap pile in a very beautiful pink and thought, "Oh, well, such is the life of a weeder!"

The next year I did more weeding, ripped out what seemed like acres of Siberian irises, ditch/tiger lilies, and yellow daylilies, and covered everything that wasn't an established perennial (most of it was weeds) in landscape cloth and 6 inches of mulch. That whole year I let it sit hoping to choke out the weeds, with the exception of a couple of things I couldn't resist buying. I also spent time learning more about gardening and plants.

Last year was my first year to do REAL planting. I ripped out the rest of the ditch lilies, barerooted every established perennial because the weeds that had survived were either already in those roots or had migrated to the roots from under the cloth, and began planting.

This year I still have plenty of yellow daylilies, an overabundance of Siberian irises, many wonderful old and new perennials (many from winter sowing), and a garden with very manageable, mostly immature, weeds. Waiting that long and letting things sit for a season under that cloth was a wonderful plan. The only things I couldn't bare root were the peonies, but they have very few weeds. One Siberian iris patch is so big (and those roots set up like concrete) that I actually have gotten the word of the construction crew building our garage that they will use their backhoe to rip it out. Then I 'll be able to do some dividing and give them away to friends. My friends hope one day I'll have something other than purple Siberian irises to give away!

So, it's not to too late to weed! Hopefully you know more than I did and you'll recognize some spring bloomers by their foliage. And, I have found some weeds are things I really like. Purslane grows, a usually hated weed, and we eat it on salads because it's one of the current fads in superfoods. Just found out the weed lambs quarter is also edible, nutritious, and good. And I love the dandelions. In the spring when our world is filled with mud from melting snow, the dandelions are one of the earlier (thought not earliest) things, and they are such a brilliant yellow in the landscape. I keep dandelions, which means I'm probably not certifiable as a True Gardener! And as for ox-eye daisies, our native "weedy" daisy, I can't get enough of them. They don't grow out into a full bush, but stay scraggly and spindly. That means I can tuck them in between plants and from amongst all those fancy blooms out pops a few completely beautiful white and yellow daisy flowers. They are great mixers!

As for quack grass, if I can annihilate the entire species, I would!

Wow, that was really long. If your garden was not as neglected as mine you won't need to do nearly as much as I did, and that would be a good thing! Basically my advice is to weed now and take as much time as necessary to really kill the weeds. You'll be glad later on if you do a thorough job right from the beginning!

I don't think there's a weeding "season." For me weeding goes on as long as the ground isn't covered by snow. At least we get a nice winter break from weeding in New England!

I would tidy up around the perennials, by pulling out the weeds from around their roots and remove dead stalks or foliage. Also, pick up sticks from the garden, trim dying foliage of bulbs (which should be mostly yellow), etc. If there are any plants you don't want, dig those out. Perhaps there are too many violets which are very pretty but seed around a lot. I weed them out constantly.

You could pull the rest of the weeds, use a scuffle/stirrup hoe if the weeds aren't too large yet, or lay newspaper down with an inch or 2 of mulch on top, which works well to smother weeds and looks great. In either case you could just leave the pine needles, they can make a nice mulch and they contribute organic matter to your soil.

I'm sure the garden will look great filled in with some pretty annuals. It's not too late to plant. I have been planting like crazy and just went to a plant swap yesterday and got more plants (just gotta remember to keep things watered).

Congratulations on your new house! If you add a bit about your location (zone and state and if you are coastal) to your ID that will help us give you better info in general.

I think you have the right idea - weed and mulch for this year. Terrene's advice to use newspaper under the mulch to help block weeds and to leave the pine needles for added organic matter is good. Annuals will add color for the season while you assess what else is there. Pots of annuals by the door or in an outdoor sitting area will add color where you will see it often, just be sure the pots are large enough (glazed pots or plastic dry out slower also.)

You can take photos of your little flowers and other potential weeds for ID and post them here if you would like. That will help keep you from weeding out any summer or fall flowering plants like phlox, asters, or mums. Claire posted a thread on how to add photos.

Another thing to keep track of is the amount of sun different areas get, so when you are ready to do some more planting you have a sense of how much sun/shade is in different areas at different times of the growing season. You may want to take photos to keep track of what is planted where, especially plants that die back early like bulbs, poppies, and bleeding heart or ones that sprout late. That will help keep you from digging things up by accident and help you know where things are as you plant or if you want to move things. Many nurseries have end of season sales, some end of spring season, and many in the fall. If you are ready to do some additions by then, that may be a good time to find plants less expensively, though there are usually plants swaps in spring and fall. You don't usually need to take things to a plant swap as a new gardener.

I haven't been mulching my flower beds. I used annuals when the perennial beds were new and the young plants small. 3 years later and there isn't room for annuals. I also don't clean up my gardens in the fall. I leave things for birds and enjoy watching birds in the early spring looking for leftover seeds. But some things with obvious dead parts need to be trimmed as soon as you can get to them such as old day lily leaves, wooden stems, old seed pods.

I think the most important thing for you to do right now is identify the plants and make sure the little pretty flowers aren't weeds. We have a very invasive "creeping jenny" that's very pretty but horrible. Make notes about plants that are too large so you can divide them at the best time. I have a hosta that grows very quickly that I inherited. I am going to remove it from one place where I put a division because it's just too big in 3 years.

Get a good hand weeding tool. I can't find any decent ones at local stores and will probably ask Santa for a replacement for my Cape Cod weeder. This is great if you have grasses and weeds with root runners.

I think delay is good. Give yourself time to get to know your garden and think about what changes you might want to make. Also, visit other gardens. The fall is a great time for shrub sales. I found my herbs do much better with more sun. I almost bought a nine bark by mistake and the dark leafed wigelia is doing fine in a small perennial bed but this weekend I saw a huge nine bark. I didn't realize it got so big. I'd like to get one but it needs a much roomier place to grown than the spot I put thw wigelia.

Flower gardening is continuous. Plants get big and need dividing. Short lived perennials disappear one winter. Bloom periods might conflict. Right now I have a purple lupine and another purple flower blooming at the same time near each other. I need to move the small plant and put a different color in it's place.

Best wishes!

Welcome to the NE forum, teapot!

You've got lots of good advice already, I'll just add that you don't need to worry about getting everything done right away. The plants will survive the summer and you'll be able to catch up with the weeds later. The main thing for new gardeners to try to do is... to enjoy their gardens. Once it becomes "too much like work" it's not worth doing.

Hope you take it easy and give yourself a chance to fall in love with your new garden.

- DtD

Thank you all for the advice! I read through them all quickly and now I'll go back and read them more carefully. It's been fun to see what comes up in this garden. Some of my friends have been helpful in identifying some of the flowers for me and other plants stumped them too (probably weeds). Can anyone recommend a good website that will help me identify some of these things?

The garden is looking pretty sparse now so I'd better get started on those annuals.

A great website for ids? Gardenweb "Name that Plant" forum! Or you can try this forum too. :)

Also, fi you see a small seedling then theseedsite.co.uk is awesome for identifying seedlings.

I've already posted a few photos on this forum for help, so terrene's suggestions are right on!