A "green" thumb?

I'm not much of a gardener. I once had an argument with my husband during which I absolutely insisted that annual flowers meant that they returned every year. Obviously I lost.

When we first moved to Minnesota we purchased a house that had a lot of flower beds. That first summer there were so many perennials making their way out of the ground, I didn't know what to do. They ended up being a tangled mess, and I couldn't tell what were actual flowers and what were weeds. When my friend Lanette came to visit, we ended up pulling up most of what was there, and I started over the next year. Throughout our four years living there, I picked up a few tips here and there....like how to split Day Lillies so that they don't take over an area, whether to cut back old flowers or let them reseed the area, and the importance of following the tabs on new plants....like you shouldn't plant full-sun flowers under large oak trees.

Last year, we moved to a brand new house, where we had our landscape designed from scratch...except for what the company labeled as "perennial beds." Little did I know, that actually meant that the area would be filled with a lot of dirt so that the homeowners could use their own creativity and money to develop a personal flower garden. I managed to purchase a mix of perennials and annuals to fill the space. And it looked nice....last year.

However, now that the nice weather has finally made its way up North here (in the 90s this weekend), my perennials that I planted last year have resurfaced. The problem is, I have no idea what I had planted, nor where they should be growing. So as I clean up the area, I'm stuck playing this guessing game, trying to figure what I'm supposed to pull out and what should remain to grow and flourish.

Although I don't know their names, these I know for sure are flowers that survived the Minnesota winter.

Because there are some equally spaced matching ones and because of their purposeful locations, I'm pretty sure these are flowers, but until I see some colorful petals, I remain doubtful.

This one I was sure was a flower, until I noticed that there were no others like it. But I remain hopeful, and will at least give it a chance to blossom before it meets its ultimate doom.

My husband said it doesn't matter how big this one is, or the fact that it's growing in an appropriate location, this is definitely a weed and needs to go.

Hopefully my garden will progress nicely, and I'll be able to post some more pictures throughout the summer. I say hopefully, because Max finds it quite amusing to walk by my garden and pick whatever is in his line of vision.