Flowers, veggies, and figs.

The past two years have been a lot of work on getting the soil amended, laying out the beds, and removing things that were overgrown, out of control, or just plain ugly. This year, I intend to focus on growing instead of removing. I hope the perennial bed fills out more. I have some plants that I grew from seed last year. They should bloom this summer. I can't wait to see something aside from annuals in bloom.

I also want to focus on getting enough tomatoes and veggies to can or freeze. My parents do this every year and I'd like to try it myself. I have a feeling it will mean planting veggies in the perennial bed where I have dead spots.

And I really hope to get some work done on the house itself. The trim needs to be painted or covered with aluminum. I think I'll go with the aluminum since it's so high up on the driveway side. The windows need cleaning, the front porch needs replacing, the deck needs painting. I want to build a couple of arbors for the back and side yard. I want a patio to sit and enjoy the moongarden. And of course, I want it all yesterday.

Vision is what I'm working on lately. I have a bed we expanded last spring near my front porch. Since I've given the lasagna layers lots of time to strangle the grass below, I'm ready to plan and plant....and I can't quite get a clear idea in mind of what I really want. Funny, since I campaigned for nearly three years to get this bed built. :)

I'm looking everywhere in my yard and gardens for places to tuck in veggies, as well as getting that lush cottage look from my flowers, WITHOUT spending bundles at the garden center.

My goal is to not dig up another bed until I have the existings ones filled up more. Well, except for that area on the east side of the house...all I'd have to do is lay down cardboard and move the edging. It would cost some dollars in mulch, but would add significant garden space...and less mowing....really, that's the only new bed I need...unless you consider the strip on the west side between my driveway and my neighbors...

It never ends, does it?

Happy visioning, fellow addicts

Creating a knot garden...somewhere. Just do make more work for myself I guess.

I've been working on a house I bought in 06 with a clean slate. The front yard has beds near the house and going around one corner and going across the front yard. It's pretty much done, except for a few problem areas where i'm trying something different. But last year I put climbing blaze roses on my front walkway arbor. I'm really hoping I get some blooms this year. I'm hoping to find a very small picket fence (not the regular size), but something more smaller. I want to install those myself behind the front flower beds and i want to paint them a purple/blue color of some sort. My front door is turquoise so i'm a little unsure, but I want something to offset the pink knockout roses and the blaze roses. I also have pink coneflowers and russian sage growing together in the same place.

I can't wait for spring.

This is the year of seeds for me -- larkspur, poppies, cosmos, zinnia, basil, chives, agastache, cleome, hyacinth bean, nicotiana, etc. My fall sown seeds are now healthy seedlings. Now, if I just don't run out of space inside the cottage garden fence. I can use some of these outside the fence (and have already done so) for deer resistant annuals.

My vision is to plant more annuals both in beds anywhere there is a bare spot and in the vegetable garden. I want no bare (therefore, wasted) spot of ground left!

Goal, rather than vision, is to plant more squashes and pumpkin and things that can be stored rather than processed. Of course, the squash bugs will be waiting in the wings to defeat me.
And, to plant lots of paste type tomatoes for salsa so I won't have to either drain the salsa or cook it down longer before canning.

I have a 40' butterfly/ cottage border stuffed with echinacea, buddleia, oriental lilies, asclepias, cosmos, persicaria (firetail), hydrangea, etc. Lots of pink plants, a little yellow. Stuffed is the operative word. I'm adding 32 delphiniums, several more shastas and a dozen black diamond elephant ears. Yum!

Mickie

I see my garden looking pretty much the same as other years.

Libby

I want to fill in the gaps between plants. Both the back and front beds are large and even though I've had them for 8 years, they still aren't filled. Someone here reminded me that mulch between plants doesn't look all that great, and they're right...So I'm taking it one plant at a time.

This year, I'm doing a few things differently. For plants I like which won't grow in my shallow soil, I'm growing them in large pots within the beds. This includes a corkscrew vine (vigna caracalla) and Nelly Mosier clematis seeds that a dear friend gave to me.

I also hope to be a successful veggie gardener and I may grow vegetables in my ornamental beds. Last night, I ate a salad made from my homegrown spinach, and it was tasty. :-) I also just planted some Swiss chard and camomile seeds today, and I have radishes coming up.

Finally, I purchased this cool 1920's wrought iron gate that needs stripping and painting. I plan to put this in my garden somewhere.

My vision is to put in a paver patio and I would love a pergola. A privacy fence would be lovely as well.

The title was vision, correct?
lol

I want a cool retreat where flora and fauna abound.
I have LOTS of green. I want more flowers!
I need to revamp the whole patio area. I do not like the way it is designed whatsoever!
DO I want to create a shady area by the patio or re-plant it with flowers? I cannot decide.
Where should I plant the three new River Birch trees I just got????

Ditto ... Sweet Betsy?
Does SB like full sun, or just morning sun?

Vision 1:
I see a pretty fence around the Potager garden and the arbor painted white with a cute little green gate.

Vision 2:
I still see a pergola over my patio. It never got finished (grrrr). In the summertime, that area is so hot and the kitchen catches all that heat. The three times that I rigged up a tarp over it, everyone enjoyed sitting out there. It gave the cats a shelter, too. It was so pleasant sitting out there when it rained.

Vision 3:
I envision a white gazebo out where the old rose garden was situated. Maybe willows growing nearby, or something like that. That is a hot, gawd-awful spot in the summer. A gazebo would change it into an inviting place with a great view of the house, koi pond, orchard and the upper gardens.

Vision 4:
I envision the old herb garden back it its former glory.

Vision 5:
Burn the house to the ground and rebuild!

~Annie

I want a cool retreat where flora and fauna abound.
I have LOTS of green. I want more flowers!
I need to revamp the whole patio area. I do not like the way it is designed whatsoever!
DO I want to create a shady area by the patio or re-plant it with flowers? I cannot decide.
Where should I plant the three new River Birch trees I just got????

Ditto ... Sweet Betsy?
Does SB like full sun, or just morning sun?

Vision 1:
I see a pretty fence around the Potager garden and the arbor painted white with a cute little green gate.

Vision 2:
I still see a pergola over my patio. It never got finished (grrrr). In the summertime, that area is so hot and the kitchen catches all that heat. The three times that I rigged up a tarp over it, everyone enjoyed sitting out there. It gave the cats a shelter, too. It was so pleasant sitting out there when it rained.

Vision 3:
I envision a white gazebo out where the old rose garden was situated. Maybe willows growing nearby, or something like that. That is a hot, gawd-awful spot in the summer. A gazebo would change it into an inviting place with a great view of the house, koi pond, orchard and the upper gardens.

Vision 4:
I envision the old herb garden back it its former glory.

Vision 5:
Burn the house to the ground and rebuild!

~Annie

Now, why did my message get posted twice?

:(

Nell, Another great thread...reading of peoples dreams. How happy is that?!

Vision 1. Hire a strong, healty (and hopefully handsome)
Garden helper.
Vision 2. Place sewer culverts in the yard for super raised
bed vegie gardening.
Vision 3. Add more brick paths around the yard so I can get
around better on my electric chair.
Vision 4. Move all perennials and scattered shrubs to main
CG bed and fill in any blank spaces with divided
plants and self seeded plants.
Vision 5. Plant all old garden beds to grass seed. Remove
all brick bed edging to use in sidewalks.

MeMo

After much thought :o) I have decided to do something positive with the bed I've been battling couch grass in. For 2009 I'm going to turn it in to a pseudo potager. Since I don't want to use chemicals it's going to take a couple of years to get rid of this menace so albeit small I'll plant it only with things that will be either finished or have to be dug in the fall, (one exception a clump of monkshood at the back)so the soil can be turned over and over through out the winter, hopefully this will work. I'd love to find an old ladder or something I can paint a bright color for the beans to climb on. Stealing your idea Brenda I hope you don't mind.

Annette

Last year I tackled the pond project. This year I'm planning a birding community. I'm designing a structure on which I will hang 8 -10 birdhouses, and under plant the area with maybe veggies. Not sure about that yet. I love birdhouses in the yard, and I've wanted to make this for a while now.
I also attempted to do a japanese shade garden on the west side of my house last year. It came out OK, but I need to replace some plants that just didn't do well and perished by the fall. So that will also get some attention.

Mindy

I failed miserably in the "Paying Attention" department last year. I also strayed horribly due to an impulse day at the seedrack, and rather than the beautiful colors of Zinnias everywhere, I went with SUNFLOWERS instead. Ugh. Never again.

This year:

Plant more stuff so there are fewer places for weeds to invade.
Weed diligently.
ZINNIAS EVERYWHERE!

Unlike Libby, my garden changes EVERY year because I get bored in the fall, and get out the shovel & move everything around. I think I have an issue.

I start taking notes during the summer about what's NOT working for me, and come fall, the shovel comes out, and plants get moved, shuffled, donated or composted.

That gives me a good slate for the following season, when I can change things up more.

It's fun for me. I used to do this when I was a kid; my bedroom was moved around probably once a month cuz I got bored. Now I think my kid has the same disease...he does the same thing. I should tell him to get into gardening. HA!

The veggie patch I always have dillusions of grandeur, and it fails because I tend more to the flowers. And every year I say I'll "do better next year."

Ok, let's see how that pans out this time.

My vision has expanded over the winter as we have decided to fence a larger house yard so I'll have a huge area to "play" with.

I've always wanted a labyrinth which takes quite a bit of space so that may now become a reality. I see garden rooms altho I've "seen" them for years and never really achieved that vision. Paths throughout and not a lot of grass. Wildflower beds here and there. I hope to introduce more blue/purple flowers.

I am also planning a garden house altho need to do more research but want to get that built this year while DH is still keen about it.

Implementing part of my vision depends on how fast I can work at making compost as the soil in the new part of the garden is not good. I'm determined to make many changes this year.

I think memo has a good idea, except I'd like to be dating my strong and handsome gardner helper, not paying him. ;-)

Besides that, finding a way to blend my cottage garden with a more tropical look in a nearby garden. Not sure how to do that actually. Hm, well, it's all pretty, so what's the difference.

"I've always wanted a labyrinth..."

Me,too. Oh heck, I want a maze.

Edibles: a vegetable patch, a strawberry patch, a blueberry patch. Maybe a fig tree (fingers crossed). I would love an old fashioned rose bush with good-eating hips.
A lot of purple, blue, & red blooms in the flower beds since they are my daughters fave colors.
Flowering vines on the old swing set.
Put shade lovers on the north side of the deck.

ajpa, I have a few fig cuttings I'm in the process of rooting. They are really easy to do.

Now is the time to root cuttings as they are still dormant. You might want to skip over to the fig forum and see what varieties are hardy for your area and get someone to help you out. ;)

I have a vision of a short rough cedar fence on the drive side of my garden, no taller than 30 inches. (I have a picture of it, but even after resizing and resizing, it still looks too big on the preview. I will post in my own thread later.)

I am very stressed now. LOL

I have a vision of an elegant chair, very comfortable, nestled under the corner tree, where I can curl up to read or observe what is happening in my garden. I see a natural floor there, no concrete or stepping stones- maybe at the end of a mulched pathway.

I have a vision of pathways which are an adventure in themselves, with pleasant surprises just beyond the next curve. Pathways of more than one type of construceion, for variety.

I have a vision of a garden which steps up at sundown to become a fragrant moonlight garden.

I have a vision of a knot garden woven into my present garden. I have the place, just have to talk DH out of that bit of grass. My knot garden will incorporate plants that bloom for most of the year here, such as plumbago, or lantana.

I have a vision of a garden which never needs weeding... No! Wait! That's dreaming, not a vision. Never happen....

Janie

token, I've never rooted anything in my life, unless rooting through the pantry for chocolate counts.

It's a tempting idea though ... (wanders off to lurk at the fig forum)

Plans...I have definite plans... ;)

Lots and lots of edibles - I ordered my fruit trees yesterday! Those will line one side of the yard (which you guys have never seen, I don't think - complete opposite side from where I've been working). Plus, I'll be busy with all of my veggies.

Annuals galore! I am planning sunflowers, asters and dahlias along one fence line in the Garden Room, since I doubt we will be re-doing any fences this year. I also am planning annuals for the front foundation planting, since we won't be re-doing the front walk this year, either. I have white nicotiana, white swan coneflowers (ok, perennial there, but from seed), coleus, and yellow violas. I am really, really hoping we don't get a drought after last year's rainy summer, so I can keep everything alive!

I am envisioning cooperative, helpful children who let me put the seedlings where *I* want them...(who am I kidding, lol...)

Scully931, yours is a better idea I suppose but I already have a very strong and handsome farmer/rancher. The trouble is, that he is already too busy with his own giant gardens, to find the time to help me with mine ;) I figured though, that if I had to hire a gardener and then painfully watch him do the work that I wish I could do, then I rightfully should have some sort of entertainment from deal!

Irene, I know I've been MIA a lot lately but the last pictures I remember of yours were of your garden shed if I remember correctly. I'll be looking for more pictures of the areas your talking about which I have not seen before! BTW...two of my kids are well into adulthood and one is almost there. They still try to rule me around and I'm still reminding them that I am the parent and they are the children. They get mad?! Will they ever get it?? LOL!

MeMo