As far as plants go:
1)A line of fabulous plants that block my compost pile from the neighbors and the chain link fence from my eyes. These include umbrella plants, roses and cranberry hibiscus.
2)A vine to cover my rain barrell (a 6' tall, 3' diamter culvert pipe). I'm thinking hyacinth bean vine or perhaps a clematis.
Plans?
3)A small garden to hide the water meter. Actually, it's a barrier so the meter reader isn't scared by our dogs.
I know this makes 4 things, but...
I'm also going to redo my main flower garden some. I had 5 texas star hibiscus, 1 kopper king hibiscus, a passionflower vine along the 2' high fence, some dahlias and a queen palm in there this year. There were other plants but none else had a chance! These guys over-shadowed everything. It was very green, but I had hardly any flowers for arrangements.
I'm going to take 1 Texas star out, the queen palm is already out and get the vine out. Now, what to plant?!!
Barb

I need to get a tall cream/white tea for my aromatic aster to climb up and lean on. I used to have a Mlle. Franzika Kruger but I moved it (and killed it), and I've wanted to put another tea rose there ever since. Devoniensis is supposed to be really fragrant, as is Victor Velidan. I need to find out about heights.

I'm trying to formulate a plan to replace the tea roses I rooted this winter if they don't make it/ the deer won't leave them alone. I value tea roses for their foliage in winter as much as for their flowers during the growing season.

I'd like to design some sculpture pieces for the garden. Fil is a welder, perhaps he could help with them (with emphasis on the word perhaps).

I'm all about roses for the spring.

1. Jude the Obscure, Evelyn and other brits will be invited into my garden. I really like the challenge of growing Austins with much less than perfect conditions...must be the machocist in me. Funny, I do not care much for hybrid teas at all...my roses have to look country or wild, sort of like me. Come on, jeff, make something of that one!

2. Naturalize my new stream and pool (it's tiny), as well as the two sets of steps I built in the fall. One is stone, the other slate. Maybe I'll adopt about 3 koi and dabble in water plants.

3.Hunt down hollyhocks. Remember that all of mine died of rust in August. boohoohoohoo Can't tell you how many I planted from seed.

3a. Cut down some trees and make the edge of the woods a "garden" with things like annabelle hydrangea, poet's laurel, camellias, etc.

3b. Keep dreaming and scheming about a glass greenhouse extension either to my potting shed or the formal livingroom. This is probably JUST a dream.

peace, claire in sanford

More veggies: sweet peas, different varieties of tomatoe, green beans.

Put in a small water feature.

Lots of impatiens in nooks and crannies of my veggie garden.

Can anyone tell me when is the best time to plant potatoes in S.C. midlands?

The biggest change so far has been the hoop house/greenhouse that I built last month. So far it has allowed me to keep most of my vast collection going strong. No plants stuffed into the crawlspace this year and only the minimum indoors (in the past it would take me 2 hours to water all the houseplants). I built the 15 by 16 foot structure completely out of supplies from Home Depot for $300 and with two small 1500 space heaters and a box fan I can keep it above 40 degrees.

I'm looking at Abutilons now, the few I had this year bloomed well for me. I think they like the part shade conditions of my yard. I don't care if they are winter hardy or not all I care about is bloom color and bloominess.

I found an Abelmoschus at Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo this past fall. The Musk Mallow type not the okra type. Looks like a hibiscus but blooms well in the shade and stays small and compact. So far it has survived the cool temps in the hoop house and I have collected some seed for next year.

Most of my day dreaming is about veggies - I am finally running out of the massive amounts of seed I brought with me when I moved here 5 years ago. So this year I will get to plant some new varieties. I haven't bought anything yet, but my veggie garden gets better and better each year so I have high hopes.

I have three globe artichokes left over from the fair plot that I originally grew from seed last winter - so if I can keep them alive all winter I should get some buds this next summer.

In the yard I have to move some trees around. I know that winter isn't the best time to do this but I don't really care if I lose them so someday soon I will out there digging holes.

Are we allowed to post more on this, LOL. I left out the biggest plans of all.

1). Clear the jungle of vines next to the driveway. I have a LONG driveway. This will not be a party.
2). DH needs to cut down a bunch more trees.
3). Plant an area in front of the front lawn that used to have a bunch of trees. It's about 75 x 25'. We had to take out a very large pine that was leaning and would have eventually taken out a section of fence, a gate, and probably a car. Then we had to take out a group of matchstick pines that the large pine had been sheltering.
4). Plant a nearby ditch. This is going to be difficult. The ditch has been graded so the dirt's not that good, but the sides are too steep to mulch. I've got a few plants in there already -- some American beautyberry, three swamp roses so far, and a couple of fever trees. There is some Virginia sweetspire, coastal pepperbush and native blueberries that was there already. I plan on putting a sweet bay or titi in there, as well as more swamp roses and blueberries.

John the greenhouse sounds great. So does the Abelmoschos. I've gotten so I hate the A. manihot unless I can shield it with other plants, it wilts so dramatically in the hot summer sun.

I also want to get the old hybrid tea Radiance or Red Radiance. First read about it in A Southern Garden and have read many raves about it on the Antique Roses forum. Also the daylily Indian Giver.

1.Plant my antique roses. I've got 30 or so wintering in containers. In fact, my new years resolution is to lose weight. Yeah, all the #'s of container plants I've been lugging in and out. Those suckers need to go in the ground!
2.I'd like to try more varieties of tomatoes and peppers. Also gonna grow some cukes. That's about all the veggies this family eats. Corn too, but we are surrounded by cornfields and we just buy from them.
3. Gonna grow more stuff from seed (new concept for me)and go to as many swaps and plant sales as I can. With Brenda of course!

My husband is finally burning the piles of cut trees he thinned from our woods two years ago, so I plan to start my woodland garden this spring. The land slopes down to a natural drainage swale that already has lots of ferns and some native gingers, viburnums and heucheras. First I need to kill a patch of catbriers though.
Dana

I'm not sure about the plants because with my "planned" project I am going to need several. But I do want to include a dwarf white camillia and some hellebores.
1.I want to finish hardscaping my yard with paths and a small fountain.
2.Establish a butterfly garden.
3.And go vertical with ironwork by DH. Shannon/Dirtrx

1. Front island bed
Add purple loropetalum. Rework edges with underplantings. Add Hibiscus acetosella 'Red Shield'. Add 'Pink Sheffield' mums.

2. Move Rosa 'Mutabilis'. Replace with Cestrum parqui.

3. Rework perimeter beds in back yard to increase depth. Add more red-orange flowers to right side; transplant butterfly bushes to better locations; add more chartreuse and silver.

Dirty, thanks for mentioning that purple loropetalum. That plant looks to have wonderful possibilities with purple foliage and hot pink blooms heavy in spring and then repeating throughout the summer. This sounds too good to be true...preferable to butterfly bush in several ways. Have you grown them before? Relative of fringey witch hazel, I understand.

claire in sanford

My sis lost her dh of 32 years this fall so I'm trying to cheer her up with some flowers. She's also physically handicapped, which means I have to do some things which need as little upkeep as possible. She loves hummingbirds and has an area I can plant which she can enjoy from inside. So, I'm looking at cardinal vine to grow up her front porch. My hummers love it. She also loves wildflowers and has a lot of them along the bank of the stream which goes thru her yard. I'm going to see what I can add to that for her. That will probably be my biggest project. This fall I already planted daffs near her back steps so she can enjoy a little color when she does get out this spring. Nothing like those first spring splashes of color to brighten your day and daffs are always cheerful. She's in the mtns so I have to gear my thinking in a different direction from my normal zone pushing tropicals around here.

WooHoo! I'm a Great Aunt! Looking for some good shade plants that need minimal care for the new Mom. She loves gardening but her time will be very limited this year. I told her I'd help with some suggestions, after I do some reading.

For me, I need to finish a lot of projects this year, like the tropical bed (finish the wall), the ginger bed (wall) and my front yard bed (edging and a path). Would like to add to the side bed and make it high enough to sit on while working in it. I'll be doing more Gingers, Elephant Ears and Brugs! Throw the water and fertilizer to them and they're real happy!

Deborah - try Lobelia cardinalis along the stream bank for late summer/fall color and also don't forget Black & Blue Salvia as a hummer restaurant.

Thanks John, I added those to my list.

i have more plans than can possibly be accomplished in one season, and more plants on my list than i have room or funds for :) that said, my #1 plant priority this spring is a climbing cecile brunner rose that will completely over-take my chicken-coop & fence & probably a bit of the cabin roof as well! #2 plant priorities are flowering shrubs & camellias to fill my back-fence shrub border so i can be done with this area forever! #3 plant priority - i've already ordered/paid for a dozen floribunda roses for spring delivery - i am determined they will not populate my "ghetto" :)

my #1 plan - get my newly-built kitchen/herb garden planted, and continue collecting cobblestones for the borders. i'll be on the prowl for an arbor for the entrance. i might get around to installing the surrounding picket-fence, too.

my #2 plan - design/select/plant front yard. i'll start this in january, by building a stone wall to form a 20'Lx5'W bed at the front porch. have ordered blue chip junipers to line the driveway & street edges - my first plant selection for this total renovation.

#3 plan - a permanent irrigation layout. piping & hose bibbs installed in out-lying back yard areas.