2009 Garden Project

[kHT]

It's a new year and time to plan those garden projects!! What is your big plan for this year, a couple photos would be nice too!

Every year we edge the front yard and we try to get this done the middle week of March and have the front yard done by the end of March, yep got
to have that curb appeal!! But this year we had visitor from up north stop last weekend so we had to start earlier. With the front completed and
the first garden visitors here, it's time to tackle the north side of the house!! After last year's burning of the toad lilies it was time to move
them to a safe place, which ment removing 7 hosta, 6 roses, 2 large clumps of iris, running wild bleeding hearts and moving some white bleeding
hearts. Today is the day to move the toadlilies!! Photos will be posted later! After this is the canna bed and planting the north fence line!

What are your big plans for this year?

[govgirl75]

We have so many projects, I get worn out just thinking about them.
Once my boys started playing baseball, most gardening ceased. Since I work and they played on different leagues, I had no time to be in the yard. I managed a couple hundred feet of flower beds and the little pond, but the apple trees and blueberries went to rack and ruin and the vege garden became a lawn again. I am retiring in May and am really getting the bug.
First of all, we need clean up. I hired the apple trees pruned because they were too tall and dense. Our little woods are a mess of fallen branches and leaves, etc. I just bought a chipper shredder this week and will use it to reduce the debris. I have the plans to make a 3 bin compost center, so that will be done asap. I cleaned up the blueberry patch today and have a nice pile of things to be chipped and shredded.
I am on the husband to get the rototiller serviced. It hasn't been used in years and needs a complete overhaul. I was thinking of taking a class in small engine repair next winter so I could do some of the maintenance myself. Anyway, we will have a new vege garden, maybe 25x35 feet. I am working on the list of plants. I have also ordered 3 dwarf fruit trees (plum, peach, cherry) and will have to plant them, I suppose. The barn absolutely needs painted as does the picket fence across the front of the house. The low voltage lighting needs to be replaced. I am waiting for the neighbor's pin oak to drop it's leaves before I do the final clean up in the front yard. I am putting ground cover and hostas on the west side of the house because it is a booger to mow on the tractor. That will be a July project and will take several days and lots of watering.
My problem is that as I go along, I will get distracted by other things I need to do, so I will be forcing myself to focus, focus, focus on the projects on the list. I will try to post pix as I go along.
Glo

[kHT]

govgirl75, please post photos when you get some of your projects done.

Here is the next project is to move the cannas that have been in the front bed for 5 years, moving them to the back bed.

[Linda P]

karma...as usual, your list of projects causes me to need a nap after I read your post.
I don't have too many projects lined up for this year. I do need to get out with some grass killer in the older
perennial beds. Nasty running grasses have made their way in. Then there's the creeping charlie.
It apparantly enjoyed the snow cover this year and merrily expanded since last fall.
I would love to finally get my mixed-media walkway at the bottom of the deck completed. I've been
saving up salvaged brick and flat stones for several years now, and may just have enough. I found a small
pile of bricks behind the woodshed at my grandma's old house on the place I grew up, and that might just
round it out. Just a few more pieces of limestone and I'll be ready to go. The part I hate thinking about
is digging out the sod and laying the base. Putting down the stones is the fun part.
I'm hoping to harness some grandkid labor for some of it.
I'm still rehabbing a frozen shoulder so I have to watch myself.
There have only been 3 days so far that I've been able to do any spring cleanup, and I still have quite a bit
to do. Yesterday was a great day to be outside, but I had to get ready for today's Easter dinner, and then
leave mid-afternoon to go fetch my MIL from the airport, returning from a visit to Phoenix.
That shot the rest of the day.
Linda P

[kHT]

Hey LindaP, I hope you enjoyed your Easter Dinner with the family.
Did you get some help with your project? Take it easy and heal.

I'm on hold after this weekends rain and they say more is on the way, so it
will give me time to plan the next project!! LOL

[Linda P]

I got one big task out of the way yesterday. I nabbed a grandson, my youngest daughter's soon-to-be-adopted Alex. He has some trouble staying with whatever he's doing, but he loved the excuse to roll up his pant legs (he didn't have a clue how to do that, and thought it was really cool!) and wade into the pond. Had a problem with my electrical connection for the pump, so Alex bucketed the whole pond out. He did a great job! He had to overcome his fear of anything that might be lurking in the dark water, and also get over the feel of the slimy bottom of the pond on his feet. He's also terribly afraid of bugs, and had a wasp land on the bucket. He tossed the bucket, flew out of the pond, and had to get himself together before he could get back in. I found the wasp floating in the pond, so somehow or other he managed to kill it. It seems the wasp was attracted by the yellow bucke the was using, so I gave him a white one and that seemed to do the trick.
So...the pond is clean, and we had a great time working together.
I think it will be a month or so before I can tackle the walkway. I still have multiple beds to clean out, and still haven't got the spraying done. Today it is realtively calm, so I will do that first thing this morning.
IF the sprayer works....

Linda P

[kHT]

That sounded like a lot of fun and I'm betting he was happy to help out grams?

Since it was raining most of the week it was time to get the Brug House emptied out and some of the plants from there
into the Greenhouse, which needed to be emptied first. So all the Clemmies are out in the yard but a couple that need
something to climb up on. The larger brug buckets are out and I need to dig holes for them next. The smaller brugs
are all that are left and some of those need their own pots. My neighbors think I'm nuts gardening in the rain!!

[kHT]

Since the common orange daylilies were over taking the grapes it was time for them to be moved
so that the grapes will do better. I took out 2 on Sat at the foot of the grapes and the last 7 on
Sunday, they were 3 feet wide and had been in that spot for 10 years.

[kHT]

Today was the day that the Cannas come out!!

[kHT]

Today was the day to finish up the new canna bed and the lower one got the special Hellebores babies for a while. I have 4 flats of irises to move in the fall to the lower
bed but I may change my mind? Here is also the size of the cannas that were dug up!! These tube will not fit in a gallon pot!! In the Canna bed each pot in the front two
rolls has a different variety except the two on the ends have C. Madama Butterfly and the back role has Grande and indica Purpurea, every other one.

Now all I have left to do is to sink the last half of the Brugs and tear down the B. House and hang the eppies.

[newtohosta-no more]

You're just wearing me out , Karma! I have hardly even thought about "projects" this year. My DH did start a bit on the weeding since it was nice Monday evening, but now it's cooled down again and it was a tad rainy yesterday. Looks like it is going to rain today too. I do want to set up some square foot gardens here at home for veggies though. And DH has strawberries on order, so as soon as those arrive we'll get them planted. Their bed is all ready. As soon as my hostas and other plants have appeared (the last ones won't be showing themselves until at least the middle of May), I'll check out what I have lost over the winter and plan on replacements to plant in their spots. I've got tons of weeding to do and I'll have to get a load of mulch and start spreading that.
Your yard looks fantastic! I really enjoy seeing all your projects in progress, so please keep posting.

[kHT]

Here is an updated photo on the canna bed. They will come out of their pots in the spring as they really aren't as tall as they
normally get in the ground. We went with Elephant Ears and Helleborus instead of putting in iries like we had planned.