Johnny's catalog just arrived! I suppose it's that time. I won't have too many seed choices to make, I've decided to go with as many heirlooms as possible and I already have my basics from last year's heirlooms. First and foremost, I need a good bell-style, or decent-sized heirloom pepper for both green and ripe harvests.

I also have to decide if I want to add some spring brassicas to what I already have, but first - with the success I had last year using row covers to defeat insects, I want to spend the bulk of this year's budget on enough agribon to cover the spring beds. I'm tired of cabbage moths and harlequins when a simple cover is so effective.

I also need to see how many new beds I can install before deciding on what new seeds to sow. That said, the real decisions, even if I don't put much new stuff in, is planning the rotation... Oh where to put the tomatoes? They grew 10+ ft. last season, and they were in the northern-most bed. No matter where I put them this year they will shade something in the early morning hours. I might leave the shaded bed fallow, but mulched, this year to improve the clay, or I might do the spring bed there (peas, greens etc...) then after it's finished let it fallow out till fall. So many choices. Yep... it's time!

Rhizo, you sound like me--20 years ago. My husband and I used to spend New Year's Eve with the seed catalogs, putting together our orders for the next vegetable garden. We had a big garden, and grew a large number of different vegetables. I love to try new varieties, and it was exciting to go through the catalogs.

When the kids got older, our daughter Gillian would look over the catalogs with me and make her requests, which always included Giant Belgium tomatoes.

I was also a flower gardener, and grew almost all of them from seed as well. Like you, I started a multitude of seeds under lights. We had a big, 4-tier plant light unit, and had great results.

But that was then, and this is now. My son and DIL work the large garden, while I grow pole beans and squash (mostly winter varieties) in an area where the in-ground pool used to be. I miss growing our old favorite tomatoes, but I've become severely allergic to solanine, which is in all the nightshades.

I got rid of the last of the flower beds last year. Sad, but I always knew it would happen eventually. As the old Judy Collins song goes, everything must change.

No more garden for us. Our city doesn't permit fencing. If you don't have a fence surrounding your property, the deer will consume the entire garden, overnight. So, Kroger is our fruit & vegetable garden.

No, not planning much for spring, just hoping to maintain what we have. Even if we get the predicted heavy rain, we will probably still be under water restrictions next summer in CA. We had a brutal summer with not enough water; plants, lawns suffered so. It took the satisfaction out of gardening. Sorry to be a "downer" here! Many in our area have re-landscaped to bark and drought tolerant plants. Some looks nice, some not so much.

I plant a hodge podge of stuff anyplace and every place I feel like it. I really need to start a plan... and move some plants. But I do have and eat grapes, strawberries and figs!!! and LOVE them. Didn't plant to many veggies last year... and have no real plans for this summer. Overall, I am gone to much for a good garden.

Moni

rgreen, I'm with you about the row covers.....which I've been using for twenty years or so. I've also been applying a kaolin clay spray to prevent heat stress and sun scald and a most welcome side effect has been insect repelling. I've begun using it earlier in the season to protect plants from caterpillars, beetles, stinkbugs, leafhoppers, and aphids.

I remember that you mentioned having to give up the flower gardens a while ago, Susan. I hate that for you.....and the Solanaceous plants, oh no!

Brush, I sympathize with your struggle with deer. We don't have that particular problem, but do have to contend with rabbits and voles. Have you tried any repellents, such as Bobbex or Plantskydd?

Years ago, somebody on some forum (here?) posted a thread that was titled something to the effect of "Are You A Planner or A Tote-&-Plopper?"

I'm a tote-&-plopper!

don't have enough room on this city-sized lot for a big garden, still have too many huge old brittle-&-they-need-to-go elms & hackberries to humanely grow vegetables (it would be cruel to plant them under those trees), & I've already crowded the landscape with a million old irises as well as roses & salvias & other toughies.

so I get a couple of plants at a time & tote them around, looking for a bit of earth that doesn't have something already growing on it-kind of like finding the top of your desk when you have it covered in paperwork-& Plop! my new plant down there.

If I have to have a goal, I guess my goal this year will be to get rid of the Bermuda grass on the last remaining length of hell-strip (that strip between sidewalk & street that's always hotter than everything else, where the soil is always worse, & the ground temp is hotter because of the concrete) & plant some tough sun-lovers like red yucca, salvias, rudbeckias, flame acanthus, etc.

Socks, I'm sure that backyard gardens disappeared in drought stricken locations. That would be so disappointing for a lot of people.

One thing I know for sure, Moni, is that you can't leave a garden alone for very long! Even with the most helpful of neighbors or caring of housesitters, gardens just don't fare so well when I am away for too long, especially during the summer.

Sylvia, sometimes old field Bermuda grass is the best option for a terrible location! I've always called such areas hostile. Reflected heat and light can be torturous for plant.....good luck with your plans, it CAN be done!

We ar also in drought-stricken California. Once the wet winter was predicted we decided to jump on the opportunity to get a more drought tolerant landscape established. We paid to have our yard dug up and mulched. We laid a new drip irrigation system. We have planted many drought tolerant plants, but we are also putting in two low chill apple trees on a separate irrigation line. We have been working hard on laying a new stone path as well. Nearly done now. I'm not from this area and it's odd to be actually gardening in the "winter" but it's the best time to plant here with the rain.

Fingers crossed that my planning this past fall pans out and the plants do well and look good together!

I have already sown the wildflowers, some are sprouting. May add some more daylilies. Last year Home Depot had a pretty good selection of tomatoes including heirlooms, and other vegetables so I'll probably do that again instead of starting from seed. I'm still picking peppers and eggplants and a few tomatoes from the plants from last spring.

I'm definitely planning, the planning from last year as far as spacing worked out well, because my garden is small.

I was just thinking the very same - gardening! Now that Christmas is over and the tree is down, I can get down to the serious business of surviving winter and planning my flower beds for this spring. I don't do vegetables, just ornamentals and flowers. Only about 2 1/2 months to go!

I think I will wait and see what comes up...I call it surprise gardening.

Lucille, my big veggies petered out a while back, but I've been harvesting fall planted chard, spinach, and other greens. I'm going to pull everything this week, though, and get some compost down for the wormies to get busy on.

My soil is challenging red clay but it is amazing stuff with a little bit of help.

I am usually planting my winter garden around now, but we have had it colder than normal so will wait. I have a lot of red and bronze leaf lettuce coming up as volunteers. And still have kohlrabi and carrots in he garden. I need to do a seed inventory, then go to the garden center and buy the ones I need. My winter garden usually does better than my summer due to water restrictions. I do love to look at the online seed catalogs, but pretty much stick to the tried and true.

Since I've gotten older, and have RA, I garden differently these days... and less each and every year. The only things I will start from seed this year is moonflower (ipomoea), starting them in late January so that I will have flowers in May rather than August, bush beans, and carrots. I'm looking for a carrot variety that will do well in pot culture. Last years Little Fingers and Imperator did not do well, although they are still producing... mostly foliage with little pencil-like carrots.

Except pickling cucumbers, the few veggies that I do will be in 5 gallon pots. 15 or 20 bell peppers, a cherry tomato and one or two Health Kick romas but not from seed.

I won't be starting any flowers from seed and have drastically cut back on the many trays and baskets of annuals that I used to enjoy so much. It's just too hot anymore for me to want to be out working like I used to. I have taken to planting perennials, something I have never cared much about in the past.

I grow lots and lots of plumeria but love them so much I can put up with the unrelenting sun and stifling heat for them. :)

A Tote-&-Plopper! Yup, that's me! I want to take part of the fence down and seed it to grass but I'm afraid to give up the dirt. I don't NEED all that garden. And I plant twice as much in the space as I should. I opened the gate and the rabbits are eating parsley. It's going to snow and blow tonight/tomorrow so that is probably the end of fresh greens for them. It has been such a spectacular winter, I could handle a few more months of it. I suppose spring won't come until June.

I ordered red monarda seeds off Ebay, planted them indoors in a sunny spot and clover sprouted. :0( Ripped off. I sent the seller my WTH msg and he sent me commercially packaged red lupine seeds....which I can use...and will plant directly outdoors next May.

Then in November I was @ a Home Depot which had marked down perennials 50% and picked up a Clematis Superba. It's got one bloom open and a bad case of mildew.... It'll be fine when it's planted outdoors next May.

I'm not ordering anything else....

I live in Southern California--where the answer to the question of when the upcoming gardening season begins, is always tomorrow morning.

I'm not finished dealing with this year's garden. My last two butterfly chrysalises became butterflies on Christmas Eve. I still have lots of flowers blooming in the back yard because I wasn't ready to cut everything back. My volunteer cherry tomato plants from the spring.still have tomatoes getting ripe on them. I trimmed up the front yard and planted pansies just because I wanted pansies. My other flowers were still going strong except for the zinneas.

the only planning is a new deck...we were out last summer and crack! one of the supports gave way! our kids gave us a good start on plans with gcerts for Christmas...I have a dry river bed theme (an idea for ca) that need to be re defined, but it won't be me...sigh...(bad back)

I have a wonderful big area for a vegetable garden but this year it may not see many vegetables. There is so much going on but hopefully can put out a few tomatoes, peppers and green beans and will see what else we have energy for. Sometimes I buy from catalogs but seldom do, just by locally usually.

Sue

Planning? I'm germinating seeds. To see what will grow and if it's successful. I have seeds that are 10+ years old. Some are germinating. Many. Some of the seedlings are making it?! Except herbs and veggies. The flower seeds are doing well, especially wildflower seeds. I do have a beautifully sunlit south facing room, and that helps. What it's really showing me is, what I find that is a really deep desire or a passing fancy. When something I've been dying to see germinates, I am thrilled, beyond belief. If I had to go back and look to see what hadn't and I thought, nope, I'd not buy more of that seed because it didn't bloom long enough, the plant was a pain in some way, etc.

Nicole, I have some red monarda seeds. If they germinate and grow, you can have some of the seeds and/or seedlings. Just message me if you're interested. Actually, I can send them along anytime. I just wouldn't want you to have your heart broken again ;) if they didn't grow.

I wish that I could grow root crops here but my soil is just too dense for them to do well to adulthood. I have been happy with some that I've grown just for their greens, however. Bull's Blood (what a name) has dark red tops that I love for salads. I'll plant more of those and some Early Wonder Tall.

I haven't grown any veggies in containers, other than colorful Swiss Chard but perhaps this should be the first year.

My favorite out of the ordinary vegetable is Rat Tail radish, a type of radish that develops on the tops and not underground. My Korean neighbor introduced them to me; she's gone now, but her two little granddaughters enjoy them with me.

I grew Bull's Blood beets last year. My soil is also fairly heavy clay. I won't be able to do traditional carrots for a year or 2, until I get a bit more organic matter into my soil, but the Bull's Bloods did just fine. I left a few out for longer than optimum and they got a bit fibrous, but lemonade out of... wait... beet juice out of beets! They're a good all-around choice. They made great juice! They are heirlooms, but I since I got a good size packet at a good price, I haven't let them go to seed yet. Some of them even developed that bull's eye pattern inside.

I have my dahlia's all tucked in my garage for the winter. That's what I'm going to be planting this spring. I forgot to buy petunia seeds to winter sow. So I'll just wait til they come back in the stores.

We doubled the garden beds a few weeks ago and added truckloads of free mulch. So I plan on more, more more! But I am waiting until February to plan what I want to plant. It is so dreary that time of year so it gives me something to look forward to.

The Territiorial Seed catalog came last week, I've been looking at Burpee online and my North Haven newsletter came in the mail yesterday, reminding me that now is the time to start tomatoes and other plants from seed to be ready for the Spring.

I try to add a couple of new fruit or vegetable varieties each year and see what does well and what doesn't and I also try to companion plant so I guess I'm a bit of a planner with a tendency to 'plop' new stuff in throughout the growing season, lol. The only tree in our backyard is a Rose of Sharon in northwest corner (to the left of the garden,) so most of it is in full sun all year.

My Fall garden has chard (leftover from the Spring,) snow peas, onions, a few carrots I let go to seed, cabbage, rosemary, raspberries and my surprise veggies that haven't died but aren't in season (small spaghetti and pattypan squash vines, a marigold and at one point before Christmas the basil and a couple pepper plants were still hanging on too.) I'm babying the squash in the hopes they will survive.

I really want to grow artichokes and asparagus this year but I would have to kill off swaths of Bermuda grass first and I'm wondering how much of a hassle that will be. I need to clear my third raised bed of the remaining grass too (I think it was partially solarized by large bags of soil, lol.) I would also love to espalier a few fruit trees, but we will see if/when that happens.

I'm getting geared up to start peppers and tomatoes, too. Our planting date, or the average last frost date, is April 15th so I like to get those two things on their way in plenty of time.

I split my seed order with three other people who have small gardens like myself and who are willing to trust me in the new varieties I want to try.

I do all of the germinating and transplanting for everybody and will grow their tomatoes in my little indoor set-up in the garage until I need the space in a few weeks for all of the flowers I will be growing.

I'm so excited!

*sigh* I wish I had not opened this thread! Back on 12/27, I sat here on my computer for hours and hours on gardening catalogs and other sites. My eyes were crossing, my back and legs were aching. And now I'm feeling a bit of an inch again. It's all rhizo's fault! :)

If you're going to try to do something in spite of your RA, it should be something you love, moonie. A little bit every day, not so much to put you in a bad place.....gardening can provide such simple joy.