So what are you guys going to do better, diffrent, or new next year?
For me - more of the older annuals, marigolds, zinnias, Bells of Ireland and the like... also planting my bluebonnets when I should over too late like this year - they are growing but not well...
Next Year
I'm planning on enlarging my back rock garden by hand....as I did this past Spring. No power tools for me! lol.... What with ALL of the swaps that I'll probably be attending next year...I have to make room for all of my new green babies. I love my Texas natives... :):) *Must make room* :D
Melanie
I hear that - every swap means a new bed on the whole... or pushing a little plant in between some older ones!
lol Mitch....and so I am finding that out....! Well worth it tho... :)
Melanie
Very well worth it - that is the way I have added all my natives more or less...
With the new bed my DH put in for me this year after my back surgery, I will have a lot of fun next Spring! I plan on spreading a lot of poppies, and larkspur seeds for spring. I have already planted my daffodill bulbs.
But what I plan to do this winter is organize my seeds!!!! I have so many that I can't find the ones I want, and forget to plant when I need to. So I am going to get them sorted, and make a list of what to plant when on my calendar too.
This year, I have to move some things around that are way too tall to other homes. Pull out some elephant ears that are making themselves endangered, and finish two beds, still not completed. Then of course there is allways those darn acorns in the pond!! Plus we still haven't replaced the rocks from when we moved them to find a leak this year.......
I think I am getting depressed with all that I need to do!! LOL!
Oh but when you get it all done it is going to look just charming, what do you use to get the stuff out of your pond?
I've already started enlarging one of my gardens where I have some roses planted. I've added four more roses recently. I plan to enlarge my rock garden too. Getting ready for Spring! ;)
Lin
I want to double the size of our garden. Now that there is some commercial value to what I plant, need more tilled space. And since the seeds I harvested are viable, need to plant tons more of what we use at the restaurant.
Replace as much St. Augustine grass with garden as I possibly can! I'd make the entire back yard a raised bed if it wouldn't flood the house.
I am working on getting rid of the grass here... got to get the bigger stuff in the new bads and then the small stuff... somehow the trees and shrubs just want to go in with their shade loving friends and their shade loving friends fried... got to take it slower I guess..
In an unused area off my driveway, I've planted some of the roots of grasses I ordered from Native American Seeds; I got Indian grass, upland switch grass, and eastern gama grass. My DH asked me to buy some large grasses to put at the corners of where I planted the roots, so he'd know where not to mow. So I got 4 Gulf muhlys and put on the corners, as well as two big blue stems that I put in the area. All the grasses, with the possible exception of big blue stem, take seasonally standing water. I put the roots in a place where water stands in the winter, when it rains heavily. I also got some tall goldenrod roots, which also take seasonally standing water. So I'm hoping to get a little prairie going, that will spread some or even a lot. That is what I've done in the last couple of weeks; the next year will show how it turns out.
We resolved to cut back on the raised bed veggie garden next year. This year we had three 4x8 beds of just tomatoes, 24 plants in all, plus another with 12 pepper plants. So DH went online and ordered a jillion packages of tomato and pepper seeds. Go figure. I think right about now we are especially hungry for a real tomato.
I hope to find my daylily and iris beds beneath the covering of native grasses. I did not know the grasses were such determined perennials when I tilled up the beds, and my flowers are losing the battle. I have a load of compost to amend the soil in the daylily bed, but the compost is still hot. Maybe by early spring it will be ready to use.
There are lots of projects on my list, but I'm trying to stick with one or two at a time.
I am now in the process of cutting down the wildflower slope, which is an area 10 x 80 feet, and the plants are two to seven feet tall, so it is a monumental task, I do it by hand, and it takes at least four 2 hour sessions.
This goes on every year. After cutting it all down it goes to the compost area in the backyard for shredding.
I have been wanting to introduce some new plants and increase the the ones that we like the best.
I am doing that in the backyard garden too, so this is a very busy and happy time.
There is so much joy and anticipation when you set plants out, and hope that they will be great.
Gardening can be exausting, but so much fun that who cares? The rewards are great.
Josephine.
I'm working on the front yard next year. Already started by aerating and putting some compost down this fall....The grass looks terrible and I'm trying to get it to not need as much chemicals by using more organic materials.
Oh my, since I just recently got the gardening fever my list of things to do is endless. I've already started charting when I need to start the various seeds I've ordered and gotten from some lovely folks on the seed trade forum. I have started a couple of compost piles where my beds will be. Once my trees (3 big pecans and 1 redoak) drop their leaves I will a have a lot more. Have started stopping at Starbucks for grounds so I'll have some green stuff to help all the brown decompose. I was going to try to plant in the mostly shade front foundation beds but have decided to not do much there next year since there are already some shrubs there and it looks presentable. For the front I am just going to put a couple of small beds around mailbox and the area where driveway and sidewalk meet, those areas get so dry the St. Augustine just bakes. My plans for the backyard are extensive, about 72 feet of new 4 or 5 foot beds. I had gotten about half cleared of grass and some old railroad ties. Then I went and broke a finger, so it will be awhile before I get back to that. I plan on putting soaker hoses in place with quick connection fittings to try to make watering easier and hopefully more effective. Is it a good thing to put the soaker hoses under the mulch? Some of the plants I'm hoping to use are Yarrow, Purple coneflower, melampodium, mealy cup sage, butterfly weed, cosmos, 4 o'clocks, Gaillardia, Hyacinth vine, Cypress Vine, Mexican Sunflower, and Turks Cap. Whew!
I have been reading so much on this great site and am learning more every day. I have made 3 hypertufa pots and plan on making many more. I plan on using them for spots of color around patio and hottub. They are neat and I have really enjoyed making them. I can't wait for spring. Hopefully there will be a spring round up and I will have some plants to share. I look forward to meeting everyone! Anita
Hopefully next year I will be enjoying the fruits of this fall's labor. I finally started my first garden bed in our new house. It only took 8 months for me to get the gumption to do it. ;) It began a few weeks back with removing the sod, but I finally started adding plants in last Thursday. I really started late, but I don't think my plants will be any worse off than they would have been in sitting in pots in the back corner of the yard. I am just glad that I finally did it. It's about 40 feet by 15 feet and more than halfway planted. (pictures are in my diary here on DG)
After I empty as many pots as I can into the new bed, I hope to start a compost pile in the back corner. Hopefully I will have fresh compost next fall.
One thing for next year - Next spring, I will probably have to extend the new bed. I have collected way too many daylilies with not enough room. I have only planted a quarter of the daylilies I have and a quarter of the new bed left to fill with bulbs, other perennials and the daylilies.
My side yard has been a disgrace. I hope to landscape it. Also I do alot of outside container gardening. And after this past summer I am eliminating small pots in favor of larger pots. I got tired of always watering them.
Mitch ....you asked about the pond clean out. We pump water out into a temp pond or something to hold fish, then drain completely. We have a pressure washer and sump pump, and a wet/dry vac that we use. We only do this every other year and only if necessary. This year we have had an enormous amout of acorns from the tree that is above it. Next year we are going to put a smaller mess netting to catch them.
Anita.....We are all hoping for a spring RU in CS, but if that doesn't happen, I know we will find somewhere to hold one locally. I would even vollunteer my back yard if necessary!
Well off to work!
Next year:
1. I have a narrow, long fenced in section at the very back of the house where the airconditioner fans are. Right now it is a narrow rock garden and totally wasted space. I plan on putting in an artificial putting green. I'm going to try and do it myself.
2. I'm going to use stronger trellises for my morning glory section. This year I used three trellises. The sturdy one in the middle had no problems, but the other two were bent forward and sideways from the morning glory.
3. Further develop the east side zero lot "shade canyon" Right now ardisea, saffron, labrador and sweet violets, and wild strawberry are doing well. Trying to find the right balance of clay,shade tolerant ground cover vs invasiveness (borders the neighbors yard) Might try some less invasive carpet bugle varieties to fill in some more containable areas.
The to do list goes on and on, but I'll be happy accomplishing the above three.
I will be living in Austin next year so will have to try many new plants- oh darn!
Will be bringing along my old friends and will keep some in pots.
Will be bugging everybody in Austin for how to, what to and where to! Hope to try lots of new things this next year.
Austin - that is going to be a huge change, but I am sure there are some great gardeners over there to really help.
Yeah I am already collecting names!
I'm not having any hanging baskets next year. They take too much care and water. Everything goes in the ground or pots. Going to pare back on beds too, so I don't have to be a slave to my garden all summer. We're still working on the temporary greenhouses around the backyard. Leaving some palms out to see if they'll survive a freeze. The cold front that blew thru last week lifted a large hoop house along the fenceline and it flew into the neighbor's yard. While repairing the tears in the plastic, I 'glue-gunned' my arm, fell off the ladder, and received a fat lip from a bee that was in my Coke can.....all within a couple hours Sat. morning. Lip is still puffed out. Gardening is soooooo rewarding!
Aprilwillis...you can raid my yard when you get to Austin, I have lots to share....
Sandi
Sandi, you poor thing. I hope you next work day in the yard goes a lot smoother. Hopefully the rewards will make them self known in the spring when all the plants reward you for protecting them over the winter with the greenhouses.
And here I thought you would help me with my garden, or join us on another ghost hunt, April.
Now you are heading for the hill country - wish we could do that, too.
Harvested a bunch of things this morning - dill, cilantro, and parsley.
Thanks for kind words. My husband thought I was having some kind of seizure when the bee stung me. I ran howling into the bathroom to see if I could get the stinger out. Looked in the mirror and the bee was crawling on my shirt. Guess it could have been worse. I could have swallowed him! DH sent him to a watery grave. I just had gall bladder surgery a few weeks ago, so was kind of "taking it easy," or so I thought.
We're just about finished moving plants into ghs. Every year we say never again....and then I buy more plants. I received some brug cuttings this fall from some generous DGers. I've moved them from water to pots now. Hope this coming spring/summer is better than this year for brugs. I had spider mites, and couldn't get a handle on 'em. Only have one kind of brug, but it is huge. And now that it's turning cold, it's blooming like crazy.
Finish my meadow/lawn! My buffalo grass plugs and blue grama seed did not spread in like planned. I hope the roots are growing because the turf sure isnt. If anyone is considering buffalo grass I would suggest a late spring planting. I have tons of weeds popping up everywhere.
I think we might also try a wildflower garden kind of like Frostweed has. Is it too late to plant wildflower seeds? I put the bluebonnet seeds from the plant swap (thanks!) down last month and they have sprouted everywhere. We are considering mexican hat, indian blanket, horse mint, and black eyed susan.
Toby, it is not too late to plant, go for it, you won't regret it, it is so much fun!!!
Josephine.