I'm going to interplant a bunch of annuals with some existing perennials in my long backyard bed. My wife is tired of the post-bloom blahs come late July. I've always been anti-petunia and geranium :-D but I'm going to give them a try next year, along with some single zinnias, annual vincas, gazanias, dimorphotheca daisies, and other things.

I'm going to do better at mulching in the spring, too. Maybe I'll care about my veggie garden more -- it usually gets neglected in favor of taking care of flowers.

I too grow fruit, including Jonathan and Granny Smith apples, Merricrest nectarines, Lapins cherries, and some strawberries and my favorite food from my garden: Canby raspberries. I do spray pesticides on the apples but I wasn't consistent enough this year. I had quite a few apples with holes and they were mostly used for pies so I could throw away the damaged slices. I don't know what they'd be like without the pesticide.

My cherries are young and only produce a handful of fruit, so I haven't sprayed them, because it just wasn't worth it. There's a cherry orchard behind my house, and I've been told (and seen) that if you don't spray the cherries, just about every one will have a little white worm in it. Since I only had a few cherries this year, I decided to eat some without checking for worms (didn't want to ruin the experience by knowing what I ate!). Then, I cut one open and, sure enough, there was the little worm. No regrets, though. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

Steve

Right now I have to finish my sun porch. I ordered the windows last week and have to side ti before they show up. Once it is enclosed tile. It will provide some place for plants with a south exposure.

Outside I will finish tearing out about half the parking strip and replacing the grass with bark and a few water-wise plants. Sunday I laid a large patch of RTF sod which requires much less water than KBG. This snow came at a perfect time for the new sod. Inside the fence I continue to resurrect the lawn and all the trees and shrubs planted this year have been mulched with Nutramulch so nutrients can leech into the root zone for next year.

Inside the garden the pear tree was mulched for next year. I am going to expand the garden by 3 more 3 X 8 beds. 12" deep. I need to grow more onions (an important food group) and I am going to try potatoes. I have more than enough tomatoes with 7 plants. I will reduce the green peppers from 6 to 4 plants (we just couldnÂt use all we had even chopping them and adding them to tomato sauce. No more leeks. We found that with Walla Walla sweet onions we just didnÂt use the leeks. We will still grow a few Okra plants because they look pretty.

My main focus will be planting fast maturing early crops so I can plant behind them. It worked this year although I didnÂt really plan for it. With a little thought I can double the garden easily. Things like small, short season cabbage for an early harvest. Then start more plants for July planting. Carrots did really well as a second crop and they are still in the ground.

I usually start about half my tomatoes but this year will start them all. When I tried to find Brandywines April 1 there were none available. At least not a Western Garden, Glovers or any other nurseries I called. Starting plants gives me more choices anyway. I buy most of my seeds from JohnnyÂs and start the tomatoes the first of February for early April planting with wall-o-waters. I start the peppers later and follow with the cabbage plants. I am already starting to receive catalogs and just canÂt wait.

Long term project (next fall) will be a small lean-to green house against the garage. I want to be able to start my onion from seeds rather than buying plants as well as hardening off some of my other plants.

Jim

Mulching is the one thing I try to get done and is an ongoing thing here, as long as we can get the materials. One thing I can count on is that where I mulch, weeding is much quicker. Since we are among the retired-getting-poorer (because of never ending, rapidly rising tax and insurance increases), rotting hay and composted horse manure has been a staple in the gardens (along with a bit of compost that comes from parrot residue, garden and kitchen scraps). However, we've had a huge influx of people here and it is getting harder to find at my usual cost of FREE. Vegetables are usually mulched with leaf mold from collected bagged rakings, but hubby's truck suffered an inconvenient collapse when pickens were good, so all we'll have to work with next year are those from our property.

I have a couple of Merricrests too, Steve. We got one fruit a couple of years ago and that's it. Spring frost usually kills them here... peaches & nectarines. We did have some fruit on one of the young pie cherries... squirrels got them. Transplanted the squirrels before they got all the apples. We were lucky to get a good crop of the Nanking bush cherries though, which were excellent this year.

Steve said "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? ".
That's what they say Steve, but I really do prefer my protein grilled along with red bells and zuchinni! LOL

Crystal

Crystal, too bad about your nectarines! I absolutely LOVE that tree. It looks good next to my lawn and it's just covered with fruit in early August. This year, I sliced a bunch of nectarines and froze them. I've been taking out clumps and making smoothies with them and bananas now and then. Love 'em. My last handful of nectarine slices is still in the freezer and will probably be eaten tomorrow. I think I've also made six apple pies this fall from my own apples. That's quite a treat. My wife decided long ago she doesn't really like cooked fruit, so I decided to become the baker in our family. She'll eat some pie, but it's all about the crust for her. So I gain a few pounds every time I have to eat a whole pie myself!

Crystal, what kind of parrots do you have? I love birds but don't have them anymore. I've had two conures and a cockatiel in the past, but after kids came along we gave our last bird to a friend -- he wasn't getting enough attention. Still love talking to them in pet shops. When I was a kid, I had a crow, a magpie that I raised from a baby and taught to talk, several parakeets, pigeons, a dove, and chickens. Always wanted a falcon, though! Maybe someday...

Jim, we have a new sun room partially done, too. Windows and doors are in, sheet rock is almost all up. It's too cold now to put on the mud so any more real progress will have to wait until next spring. Wish we had been able to get the gutters back up before the cold weather set in, but the flu slowed us both down to a near stagnate snails pace for more than 4 weeks.

What is "RTF" sod? My brain is still slowed from being ill, I think. Best you just tell me other than stressing it more. LOL We have no grass here. Neighbors asked me for years, "Are you putting in front a lawn this year?" Always said "no". Planted flower/shrub beds instead. Next Spring I've got to get the walkways done, but just haven't settled on the details. We are going to put in a small lawn (maybe 'Little Blue Stem')in the back, though. The dogs bring in too much dirt. Did one for them when we first moved here but it got a major attack of sod web worms or something. We knew it was going to be a mess when building the sun room, so we just let it go.

You've got a lot of work planned with all those new beds, Jim! My hubby grew onions and potatoes for years but has discontinued them now, except green onions.. which I dehydrate. Couldn't seem to get the onions to store as well as we wanted. Peppers of all sorts store well in my freezer though, and easy to do. Red bell quarters from freezer to grill ..to plate, is such a good reminder of both the past spring and the one to come.

I'd love to plant late crops, but things always get in my way, it seems. Swiss chard is especially delicious after some fall frosts and would like to do a late planting of them. We've planted carrots in spring, laid down a heavy mulch of hay in the fall and harvested them through the winter, but haven't done that in a few years. The drought squelched much of our enthusiasm, I think. My hubby used to start all of our garden plants, but I think not-so-young-age has now done that in. We have lights set up in the basement, however going up and down the stairs just isn't his exercise of choice.

Good luck with your lean-too greenhouse plans. I understand that's the best way to grow early.

Crystal

RTF is Rhizomatous Tall Fescue. It's a fescue that spreads (much more slowly than KBG) by rhizomes. Most fescues don't spread, so they need to be overseeded to repair spots that have gone bare.

bpgreen, thanks for helping me remember what RTF is.

Steve said "...She'll eat some pie, but it's all about the crust for her.... I have to eat a whole pie myself!"

Sounds like torture. I'd suggest you keep making 'em. Maybe one day she'll acquire a taste for it. I used to be a crust person myself. I discovered that I have 'superior' taste buds and now love the pie filling too. I just use much less spice. It was irritating to me to eat apple pie that tasted like cinnamon instead of apples. Many recipes call for too much spice, IMHO. I have a good no-sugar-added pie filling recipe.. I adjusted the spices to suit myself and, this year found a good low fat crust recipe.

I'd never realized before having fruits fresh from my own trees, just how good they would be. The apples from my Fuji are different than those from a grocery store... more flavorful and even crisper.

Don't rub in my lack of nectarines, Steve. :-( The thought of a juicy fresh nectarine or peach (or even frozen in a smoothie) sounds delicious! One year we got a box of nectarines fresh from a friends tree. Great fresh, needless to say, and the low sugar jam I made from them was fabulous!

Parrots: Part of the reason I grow organically on my property.....

I mostly have African parrots but also have a couple of Blue & Gold Macaws and a flight of 3 older cockatiels (2 well into their 20's). The "Psittacine" in my online name means 'of or pertaining to parrots'. I was a 'psittaculturist' (raised and studied them) for almost 30 years... retired from the "raising" part a few years ago. They definitely aren't for everyone because, if their needs are truly addressed, most are higher maintenance pets than a dog or cat.

I've raised many species of parrots, or have studied them. I've also raised barn swallows, a killdeer, sage thrashers, humming bird, magpie, a starling (fun bird! much like a Magpie) and a common sparrow (Twiggy, one of my favorites)and maybe others I've forgotten. Have never been able to save a common robin, though.

What species of conure was yours?

Steve said: "Always wanted a falcon, though! Maybe someday..."

Not an easy thing to get a raptor license. There is a guy that lives a few blocks from me who is a falconer and has a raptor rehabilitation license. His golden eagle died of West Nile Virus last year, (he now has a new one for his education program). They are beautiful animals.

Crystal

Make that "... and a flight of 2 older cockatiels...". Lacey, our beautiful cinnamon-pearl-pied-whiteface gal, best friend to both Rascal and Louie, died this morning due to complications of old age. At 15 years old, she was the youngster of my 'tiel group. :`(
Her favorites from the garden were kale, carrots, dandelions and an occasional rose blossom from a Bonica bush.

A sad Crystal will miss that sweet feathered girl.

Crystal,

Sorry to hear about your cockatiel dying. They can be sweet birds. We get to babysit one once in a while when neighbors are on vacation, and my girls love her.

The conures I had were a Nanday and a Cherry Head. The Nanday was wild when I got her, and I tamed her so she really like me, but she hated my wife and would do that evil Nanday scream at her. She didn't last long -- we traded her for another bird. The Cherry Head was wonderful and beautiful. He had been a hand-fed baby, so he was very gentle. Unfortunately, something was wrong with his vocal system, so he NEVER vocalized at all. Unusual for a member of the parrot family! Actually, that's why my wife liked him! We kept him eight years, but when my first daughter was three and we were moving to a new home, we decided he wasn't getting enough attention anymore (we had a kid to play with!), so we found a nice old lady to give him to.

Anyway, just to stay on topic here, I found a wonderful thread on the GW perennials forum on long-blooming perennials. I think I'll try some of them next year, including Salvia 'May Night,' Nepeta 'Walker's Low,' Geranium 'Rozanne,' and Kalimeris pinattifida. The link to the thread is below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Long Blooming Perennials