If you could start over with a completely empty palette...

I would do what my friend, Maggie, did.

Year 1:
* design the overall plan (shape and foundational plants)
* create berms with layers of newspaper, topsoil and organic waste (lots of chopped up
leaves & old manure)-lazagna gardening or sheet composting
* plant trees & shrubs and mulch heavily

year 2:
* mooch perennials from friends and create a few vignettes (offer to help friends with a
day of weeding and dividing plants)
* collect seeds from friends' and neighbor's gardens (with permission, of course) and
mooched plants-direct sow seeds in the general locations that you want them to grow.
Maggie had a nice pick and sprinkle seed collection/sowing system.
(You could also wintersow seeds and create a nursery section for young plants.)
* Buy a couple of must-have, harder to find perennials, plant them in rich soil (if they like
rich soil) so that they will grow quickly.
* Hit end of the season plant sales.

year 3:
* keep mooching and seed collecting/sowing
* add chopped up leaves and manure
* buy a couple more must have perennials
* hit more end of the season sales

year 4: start trading perennials to diversify your plant collection

Another thing that you can do is to start a file for combinations that you like. I posted on the perennials forum asking for people's favorite combinations (with pictures) and I'm using those ideas to plan/rearrange my garden.

Another idea that I use:

When I go on garden tours, I take pictures of what I like and then I use those pictures as inspiration in garden designing.

Hi Katie,

Thank you very much for that outline! It is a great plan. I guess I'm a bit better off than most because I already had a lot and a bit of a variety to boot. I am also growing tons more from seed and ordering stuff here and there for both myself and to sell. My largest downfall at the moment is lack of good soil. I'll have to get some of the local farmers to share their poo. :)

Have a great day!
Michele

Michelle:

I hope that you find a farmer who is "full of it."

Don't forget about leaves. People who are doing spring clean up who have lots of trees will likely be willing to donate their yard waste. I would inquire about local yard waste on Freecycle. You may also want to check to see if the local landfill composts leaves collected in the fall. The leaf compost is often available for free.

I also have been known to hit up places that host horse shows for sawdust to use as mulch. Aged horse bedding breaks down the horse apples and makes a nice topping for flower beds.

You might also want to hit up farmers for spoiled hay.

My favorite tip is to use newspaper as a weed barrier. Make sure that you check with the newspaper publisher to ensure that they use soy-based ink. 12-14 page layer of wet newspaper (or cardboard) on top of sod does a nice job of killing the sod without having to resort to chemicals.

I LOVED reading this thread. Badseed, you are not too far from me! I'm moving to Springboro! Maybe I'll drive out and see your place sometime. :)

I'm moving to a new house in a couple of weeks. Don't have a firm closing date yet but most of our issues have been solved.

I'm glad you mentioned finding out where the septic and leach lines are. Being unfamiliar with that setup, I had only *kinda* thought about that but didn't insist on it. I'm gonna call my realtor tomorrow and make sure she gets that info for us. I'm sure they're deep enough that an ornamental bed wouldn't be a problem, but I wouldn't want to grow veggies there. And how much you wanna bet they're in the only cleared, flat piece of the lot? :)

Nice to meet you pkock! I'm familiar with Hamilton. My grandma and great aunt both lived in Fairfield when I was younger. I also went to school out there and sometimes still get up there to go to Jungle Jims.

The realtor did provide us with a sketch of the septic system but it's not exact. If you can figure out where the tank is, they can tell you how long the lines are and you can pretty well figure it out. It was kind of funny since we were looking at the house in late summer and the fields had not been cut. In the middle of all the beige plants, there were five green streaks of nice green plants. LOL

Okay, now my fields are not CUTE! LOL

This message was edited Feb 17, 2006 2:24 PM

I bet the five green streaks were cute 'Chele, lol.

mwaaahaaahaaaa

;~)

mg

Oh it was a lovely form of variegation on a field sized scale. LOL Wonder what it will look like with 8 people sized wastes. Ahem....

If I had to start over with a blank palette, my first thought would be to jump off a bridge... if I didn't follow through on that, if I had a piece of property that didn't have a lot of trees which would die if I piled dirt on their roots, rather than digging beds, I'd order in big truck loads of compost, and sculpt berm-like flower beds, with the highest berms around the outside. I'd have a large pond with a stream flowing through the whole property, and I'd have all my paths at ground level meandering through the berms, with the paths being wide. The Brits say to make your paths wide enough for two people to comfortably walk side by side. I'd then put in an irrigation system and electric outlets. Then I'd win the Powerball to pay for it all.

Zone, sounds like a plan to me!

zonedenial, will you buy me your plan?? LOL It sounds wonderful!

I think I'd like to win the powerball first, then plan....

If I could do one thing, I would smack the prior owner for using rocks as a mulch along the driveway. Now full of weeds and impossible to dig in. I'm going to have to have a bobcat clear it out for me.

Ooooh Oooh! The B word! Rent the bobcat, give me a date! I'll work for plants and beverages as previously discussed! LOL

LOL Kelly

Wow!! What an excellent thread!! Maybe it should be turned into a whole forum. Plans, plots, landscaping, etc.!! My partner and I returned to our family "ranch" here (40 acres in the high desert) about 2 years ago. I feel like we've been "camping out" for the last 2 years. Alot of our things are still in storage, and we finally managed to get our bedroom insulated and drywalled so we could move our bed out of the living room this last christmas!!!

After evicting the tenant from hell, and getting the worst of the code violations taken care of to get the county off of our backs, last spring we managed to get some gardening and landscaping started.

We put in 2 veggie gardens, a small kitchen garden (about 1000 sf) next to the house (east side), and enclosed another 3000 sf across the driveway for corn and melons and winter squash and gourds. We're not using either one quite to it's full potential yet, as our very sandy soil requires double digging and TONS of compost per each raised bed/mound, and we still have about 15 creosote bushes to remove from the large garden.

For landscaping we are working around/with the existing few honey-locust, some nearly dead bamboo-ish stuff, a couple of huge Yuccas (at the end on either side of the broken concrete path from the front door to the road) creosote, a joshua tree, and rocks and sand. So far we've mounded some strategic areas for cactii (and eventually flowers , I'm scattering poppies and marigolds and mulching them next week) Arranged some carefully chosen "junk" into yard art, and created a semi shaded sitting area to the southwest of the house under the locust trees. The rabbits and field mice were VORACOUS last year due to heavy rains and wild mustard greens as high as our hips, so I lost alot of the ornamentals I originally planted to the critters.

I got (a little) smarter, fairly early, and made a couple of old wood rowboats into flower beds. (had to enclose them in chicken wire to keep the jacks and cotton tails out, but the little ground squirrels moved in anyway, and had their pick of the tasty flowers!!!) *LOL* I've ordered some cold hardy glads, but I'll have to protect them fromthe lll critters that like to eat bulbs and seeds!

Our biggest project for this year will be getting water lines and drip systems out to the landscaped stuff. It takes hours to drag the hose and water by hand. I'm trying to stay draught tolerant in the main, but even so alot of things want more water in their first year or two, until they've become estaablished. I do want a water feature/pond, too, but It'll have to be at least partially shaded and DEEP to withstand our summer temps.

Also there is an old chicken coop that I use as a tool shed and compost area, and my plan for that ugly thing is...to plant Bindweed behind it and allow it to go nuts. Yes, I know it's invasive, but it's far enough away from anything else that I think the foliage and pretty lil white flowers will look great covering that eyesore shed.

Well, haven't I just rambled on and on. My digital cam just took a sh*t, so as soon as I replace it, I'll upload some pics of our little corner of paradise (in progress)

desert_witch: Sounds like you have your work cut out for you. We'd love to see pics when you can get the camera issue resolved!

Stacy

Hey, desert witch, you sure are going to be busy! Definitely take those before and during pictures to keep you motivated. Good luck with everything!

Jen
PS That drip line will be a huge pain but soooooo worth it!

I would have DEFINITELY moved the fruit trees further from the house. You know how much I like still having a big yard Chele, and those darn trees are just in the way where they are. Had I actually thought about it, or knew then what I know now, I would have definitely designated a specific "orchard spot"

I also wouldn't have lined the garden with all those iris... too hard to keep weeded on their slope, and too hard to get to the garden through the irises.

I also think Katie's idea of "help a friend with weeding for a day and divide plants"

LOL

I have just put a yucca plant in a circle outside my dining room window so I can see it throughout the winter (Michigan) what else can I plant arount it for winter interest?

Hey Michelle,

How about some new pictures showing what the place looks like now? Your plants should be growing nicely by this time.

Donna

I've actually taken a few pictures lately of what I have been up to. :) I'll be back soon, like in ten years. LOL I will try to post soon.

What? Are you busy or something? lololol

Can't wait. :-)

D.

Me busy? Well, it does take considerable time to tell the kids to get you bonbons, where they are, wait for them then slowly suck down one at time while lounging in a hammock in the sun. Then you have to find just the right pool boys to slather all that skin with age improving tanning lotion that makes you thin while you fry in the sun.

*SMACK*

Oh, I mean, I'm getting plants ready to sell at a furious pace, putting in my own gardens, mowing about 2.5 of my acres, taking care of six kids and two little bunny rabbits and my house is filthy and a mess. LOL

That was a lovely reverie, esp the "age improving tanning lotion that makes you thin" LOL!

I can dream can't I? I just edged out two new beds, mowed the front yard, cleaned up around the garage and weed eated all that, straightened up a mass amount of pots and flats and rearranged a bunch of plants. I'm fried to a crisp, my feet are green and there are knots in my hair that may never come out. Attractive huh? Now, where is that lotion??

You love feeling that way, admit it. *giggle* One with the earth.

There is a huge difference between feeling all earthy and wearing half the earth! LOL

I got new plants today, so I'm in a good mood. ;-)

Got that new plant smell did ya? LOL I am thrilled beyond belief that I finally got done sorting all the plants I brought from my other house! I had pots and buckets and bags EVERYWHERE! I also put a bunch of plants out in the sun and took down half my cattle panel hoophouse. Hubby got his parking spot back too. LOL I've moved all the sale plants over by the barn and hid my private stash over in the back yard. The hoophouse is down to 12x9 now and still full and so is my 12x8 greenhouse, four shelves high. Hmph. I think I need help. hahaha

Oh, I just finished my soils class, so I'm free for the summer! Except I eat a lot and have two whiny expensive kids, LOL.

Hey, girl!!! :) I'm back just in time to get kicks out of you being in full force this summer!!! :)

Congratulations on the house and the ACRES!!!! :) Woohooee!!!

Pics, please?

Jacci ;)

Boys or girls? I won't notice a couple more girls but I think boys would be woefully outnumbered and possibly unhappy. LOL

JACCI!!! I keep seeing "Sam at work" and thinking about writing but then I don't. LOL I wondered when you would be back! I heard a little rumor that you would be back around the end of the school year! It is so great to see you!

Alright, alright...I'll post some pics. :)

Starting new thread here: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/601018/

Beverlyjkay--try some sedum Autumn Joy, and if you have space, some fountain grass or feather reed grass "Karl Foerster." They will turn brown or tan, but hold through the winter. If you want green, try boxwood and keep it trimmed to maintain a small size.