I was planning on getting seeds of Poppies, Hollyhocks and Foxgloves.
Thanks to wonderful people on seed exchange forum - my dreams are about to bloom very soon!
I am so excited about planting annuals, seeds, expanding beds, and just watching everything grow and multiply - I can hardly sleep at night! :)
Spring (especially after the last frost) is so thrilling and joyous!
Life is good!

I wasn't part of the original thread, but I had wanted to buy and plant arborvitae along the line between the neighbors and me, and I planted six a couple of weeks ago and the remaining four this morning.

Have all my veggie seeds bought and peas planted. That's all I've done so far that I had planned on.

Whew! I had to check that thread to see if I had planned anything and I'm glad to see I didn't! LOL I know there is still snow on my garden but we've left home til it's thawed. This time of year is so frustrating as I want to do something but no longer plant seeds indoors and can't work outside yet.

We'll be going flat out in another few weeks. May thru August will be work til we drop. Can't hardly wait.

I wasn't a part of the original thread, but I usually have
my tomatoes in the ground by the end of Feb. The ones I
started from seed are still on the back porch. If the weather cooperates I'll put them in this weekend.
I did transplant peppers, planted onion and shallot sets and planted green beans next to the trellis. Herbs planted last season are doing great. I also have hollyhock seeds for a SASE. Just let me know. They're pink and mine grew to be about 10-12 ft. They were amazing. April weather is so
iffy. Hope you all have a pleasant night.

Brenda

I'm sort of on schedule. About half my wintersown perennials are in the ground. My tomatoes will be planted out this weekend. Just need to figure out a method of staking them. My annuals are just starting to push through so it'll be another couple of weeks before I plant those out. My hoophouse was just removed this morning. I'm about the head to the landfill for a load of leaf mulch. Tomorrow I'll get wood mulch for a couple of beds if the rain isn't too bad today. I'm going to try to get my corn and cukes planted this weekend. Maybe the squash if I have time. Okra will be direct sown in a couple more weeks. Peas are just starting to get their second leaves. And there are blooms pushing on the petunias I started indoors. Overall, I wish I were further along, but the chance of frost has kept me from moving too fast. I think that's over now.

A big NO!!! mother nature was not in a cooperative mood but I'm hard at it now. I'm expecting the new Begonia and Dahlia tubers to arrive any day now, it's always fun to get new stuff.

Annette

Looking back on my original post--I see a couple plants I don't think I want anymore. Then add a couple more that I just decided I want. The list never ends!

There are several things on my list that are being offered at a plant sale this June. They have the Lathyrus vernus, Smilacina racemosa, and Callirhoe involucrata (though I am having second thoughts about this one). But that is a long way away.

In regards to the schedule...nope! But I always feel that if I am not ahead of schedule I must be behind it. I want to top-dress the garden (and maybe the lawn too) with compost. I still need to call around about having some hauled in. Then I need to buy some Alfalfa pellets this week end. Oh yes, and some mulch for that bed in the front yard that dries out too much...and pea gravel for the walkway along the side of the house.
Then on the 25th I plan to take a rose cutting down to the extension office to see if I have a powdery mildew issue with my roses. Then I still have to get rid of that big pile of branches and twigs. Sigh...

-Tom, there was a thread on tomato support last year. I found it very informative. But I am still not sure what method I am going to use. I plan to grow a lot of tomatoes and veggies in pots this year, so maybe just use rebar and other stakes. That reminds me, I need to get more pots.
CMK

Here is a link that might be useful: How do YOU support your Tomatoes?

Well, the snow disappeared much earlier this year than last, even though we got dusted last week, it disappeared quickly. Of course, i raked the leaves off the beds right before that last snow!! lol. Most nurseries here don't have a lot of their stock in yet. This for me is a good time to lurk around their fringes, and see what overwintered for them. My tomatoes are ready to plant out, but that's a month off, so I really need to calm down and seed later. Yeah, that'll happen. So, for now, raking and working on paths, etc.

Nancy.

I would say I am 2/3 on schedule... Still need to do the major job of spreading compost on all beds then covering with a layer of mulch. I am expecting my flat of Green Mt. Transplants to arrive next week (72 plants), so I was waiting until that stuff is in the ground before mulching. Then we are going away on vacation in the first week of May, so that takes out 2 weekends. I have to sow seeds for a cutting garden, and I must admit, I am not going to spend too much time on that. Basically rake up the soil, mix all the seeds up in a baggie, then sprinkle them around and hope for the best.
I planted all my lily bulbs, still need to plant dahlia bulbs, gladiolas and cannas for some color. I really need to go do that while everything is still "small". When May hits, everything explodes in growth, and then I don't have room to move around in the beds much without fear of trampling something.
Oh yeah, and our new puppy who thinks the garden beds are his private bathroom.. Grrrr. Good for him that he is the cutest thing on earth right now !

I went on a shopping trip two weekends ago and I am generally on track. My plant wish list has definitely gotten shorter, but I'm sure it won't be for very long as the plant sales are just gearing up:

- I was excited to have found Salvia 'Mystic Spires'. I have high hopes for this salvia, which is a sport of S. 'Indigo Spires'...only a dwarfer version which does not flop. I have it paired next to Lantana 'Chapel Hill Yellow', which is a hardy perennial in my area.

- I could not find Stachys macrantha, but talked myself into buying the related Stachys coccinea 'Hot Spot Coral' instead. It's already starting to bloom...the blooms are indeed coral. Hmmm, that might be a little tough to place.

- I debated between Pulmonaria 'Dark Vader' and a P. longifolia and ended up w/ 'Dark Vader'. I'm a little worried that it's moisture requirements may not be met, but sometimes you never know until you try a plant.

- I did not have to replace my Thermopsis chinensis 'Sophia' like I thought I would have to (having butchered it last fall trying to divide). Surprisingly, it came back from the crown and I now have lots of little Thermopsis chinensis seedlings around it.

- I bought two different Coreopsis, C.'Full Moon' and C. 'Sunshine Superman'. I already had C. 'Redshift' which sailed through this winter (a tough one by recent standards), so maybe the streak of finicky new Coreopsis introductions has been broken. Yay!

- I bought Helianthus 'Low Down', a short 1'H version of the more aggressive fall-blooming Helianthus salicfolius. I've tried this plant once before, but the drought killed it before it could get established.

- I bought a Rhodaphiala bifida (fall-blooming bulb) and plan to plant it in the bed outside the deer enclosure (it's rumored to be deer resistant). It's common name is oxblood lily and it looks like a short amaryllis.

- I was looking for Heuchera 'Miracle' and was seduced by Heuchera 'Caramel' and 'Pistache' instead.

- On the experimental front, I bought Phygelis 'Purple Prince'. I understand that Phygelis are regulars in the PNW, but the info from the UGA web site had some good things to say about this plant for Southern gardens.

I was not in on the origional thread, but I am definitely not on schedule.

I never have been, I probably never will be.

I am always off track, always behind, always acting in an impromptu manner.....

I have so much to do, I will never get caught up!

I just went plain nuts propagating this winter, and I have so much to do something with. What was I thinking? Like the lady I remember a few years ago who found the WS forum. She had so many little plants, and she realized she only had a really tiny yard. There was no way she could plant all that stuff in her garden!

Some would encourage me to remove more grass, but I have already done away with almost all the grass. We have only a tiny patch in the front(for what reason?) and I don't think DH will listen to pleas to get rid of what is left. He likes grass.

Plus the fact that I am always looking for something different....

Janie

Yard Sale!!! That's what we'll do with the spares!!! lol...

Nancy.

Spazzy, you will love the full moon coreopsis. I bought one last year and divided it this winter into 8 new plants. It creates huge mounds. I won't divide it again for a few years. It bloomed all summer and deadheaded itself for the most part. Or maybe the birds got to the seeds when I wasn't looking. I had blooms on it when the first frost took it down in November. I love that plant.

Christinmk, Thanks for the link. I bought cages today. They aren't as big or as sturdy as I would like, but I'll stake them with pieces of wood from the salvaged pallets I picked up last week and tie them all together. Next year, I hope to have some cattle panels and t-bars for support.

Janie, you crack me up! And as for your "tiny patch" of lawn isn't it you who is now adding little wild flowers to it?? LOL!!

Done:
Front yard raked and seeded for grass!!

Cottage garden flower bed cleaned and trimmed.

Pine slabs for Potager raised beds are moved from the stackyard to the backyard!

Red Cedar Boughs for first arbor are sized and stacked up waiting to be screwed together (it snowed two feet).

Seeds and bulbs for an island bed in the side yard have been purchased. This bed will be ever growing and expanding to eventually include an ash tree and a small pond with waterfall for a future garden goose I hope to get, also a windmill and pump kit to operate the water pump for the pond. Plantings will be:

Ornamental Grass Seeds:
Lemon Grass(Cymbopogon Citratus)
Pony Tails(Stipa tenuissima)
Cloud Grass(Agrostis Nebulosa)
Bunny Tails(Legurus Ovatus)

For bulbs I have:
Falling Stars(Crocosmiiflora Montbretia)
Emberglow Crocosmia(Crocosmiiflora)

The flower seeds are:
Butterfly Flower(Asclepias Tuberosa)
Bright Lights Cosmos(Cosmos sulpbureus)
Nasturtium Dwarf Jewel Mix(Tropaeolum Minus)
Purple Coneflower(Echinacea Purpurea)
Verbena bonariensis from seed that PattiOH so kindly sent to me! Thanks, Patti!! (I will need some arborviate too but there are no greenhouses open yet, around here).
The whole bed will be RED-YELLOW-ORANGE-PURPLE and mixed grasses. My ode to Bright!!! I'm excited :)

My "to do" list is very long as it always is, so I will just do one thing at a time and see where I am next quarter, LOL! Since we are still 6 weeks away from our frost free date, I'd say right now, I'm ahead of the game.

MeMo

I see I just talked about the Purple Poppy Mallow....it is still sitting on the patio. I don't know if they are ever going to germinate!

So, I am ahead of the game. I have maybe 50 lavender plants up almost ready to transplant into bigger pots, several daylilies, flat of red salvias, two pots of Yvonne's salvias,a flat of foxgloves, tomatoes, peppers, lettuces,egg plant and onions all ready to go when the weather cooperates, a small pot of aquilegia chrysantha, pot of shasta daisies, three lonely sweet williams, red poppies, and a pot of lily seedlings. The plant light stand is full!

Now, we need some warmer weather.

It was 30° here this morning.

Actually, I am feeling pretty 'caught up' at this point.

-Memo, I love my Emberglow Crocosmia!

Did I forget to mention I also needed to get a trellis for the Golden Hops vine and wire or something for my bean poles?
I called yesterday to see how much compost was...$33 for one cu. ft! I am not sure what the going rate is, but that seems a little steep! Maybe I will just let my own compost cure up and dress the parts of the garden in stages.
CMK

I looked at the old thread - I did get almost everything on my original list, except the heliotrope. I had listed out all my existing plants in the rear beds by color, and realized that I had more lilac/lavender than anything else, so maybe adding another wasn't such a good idea, lol.

Also, I think I've mentioned that dd talked me into getting a bunch more annuals, mostly in hot colors. And since we have extras from her flower party, I should have a good start on filling up the new border along the fence line that we started yesterday. It will have some dahlias (from seed), asters, assorted sunflowers, zinnias (I forget the name, but magenta-ish), and nasturtiums.

CMK - That sounds like a price per yard, not cu.ft! We have similar pricing around here - it gets pricey. Dh I think overestimated how much we need - I'm slowing working down our big mountain in the driveway. (Ok, with help from dh and the kids - but I'm pretty sure I've done more than the rest combined, lol.) So, yeah, we spent more on compost than on all of the plantings this year, which drives me bonkers.

And yesterday, as dh and I were walking around the yard, we decided that we really want to do something with the shady side yard that is scattered bits of grass with lots of dirt in between. Not sure if we will get started on that this year - but if I have enough compost left over, maybe I'll start amending for a new shade bed. I'm threatening to do nothing but pachysandra so I don't have to deal with it (it's the side of the house I rarely go to, though I suppose if it were nicer I might not avoid it as much!)

As far as major projects, we are pretty well on track. We also enlarged the front bed and added as much compost as we dared without raising the grade too high. I've amended all of the new veggie boxes, and started planting them with early crops. I also planted my fruit trees. We also had our first campfire of the season, with all the dropped limbs from over the winter, as well as the dried-out remains of our Christmas tree. (That flared up pretty high for a few minutes!)

Now I just have to figure out what to do with all of this compost I still have - and finish re-organizing my main flower borders.

Oh dear, this post title sounds so serious! Goals, targets, plans, lists, projects, schedules - I get enough of those at WORK. Gardening to me is for doing things when I feel like it and when the weather lets me. It's for vague ideas, impulse buys, daft experiments and ignoring the weeds if that's what I want. Some things need doing at certain times but nature is very forgiving, especially over here, and a few days or even weeks either way don't really matter much. The season always catches up in the end. Whenever I start feeling guilty about the garden I stop myself. It's not supposed to be a chore - it's for pleasure. I'm afraid I'm not very goal orientated - I don't even know what I want to do when I grow up yet. Sounds like a kindred spirit for Janie.

Irene, I have an area like yours. It's the north side of the house and is mostly shaded all year long. The whole area just feels "dead" even though there are lots of living things over there. I planted some hosta this winter from a friend's bed that we dug up to divide. I also put a hydrangea over there. Other plants will go in as I find them. Shade beds that need some height are tough to do. I've planted English Ivy right up against the brick. I figure after 60 years, if the mortar is still in good shape, a little Ivy won't rip it apart.

Got my tomatoes planted yesterday. The veggie beds are prepared and ready to be planted. The almanac says the 25th-26th are the best days for planting corn, beans, etc. I was thinking of sowing them today, but we have some cool nights ahead of us. I'm going to wait the 11 days and let the sun warm the ground a bit first.