Preparing for next year 2008

So what is everyone doing to get ready for next year? Adding any compost? Maybe making compost? Taking cuttings? Which plants? Searching any sites for plants? Which plants? Dividing and moving plants? Collecting seeds? Making trades for either plants or seeds? Creating new gardens? Anything artistic? More arbors or pillars or trellises?

So many questions.......

I'm not really doing anything for next year. I do collect seeds - mostly for others. I do need to go around and make sure my final plant location maps are correct soon.

Well next year is going to be a much less ambitious year for me. This year I made two new beds and rearranged one. Put in a trellis wall and an arbor. Too much since I can't be out there too long at a stretch like I could before my mom came here to live. Got way behind on the weeding and mulching early on and it was hard to catch up. One bed got ignored entirely. That is the slope garden and really is two beds. They will need reworking next year which is why they got left for last this year. I am wanting to take out some roses and replace with coneflowers. Also plant Limelight hydrangea and some hardy geraniums. Also fix up the lily bed, add some coneflowers there too and move a Black Jack sedum there I think, still planning that one. All the roses will get a top dressing of composted manure and top soil/compost mix and if I can the perennial beds will get a little too. I have already done the DL bed when I trimmed them up. Also have a couple Iris to move but that's about it for this year. I find it very difficult to start and stop work out there still. I was used to going out early in the am come in for cold drink and a snack and stay at work till evening, now I have an hour here and there, I never know if I will be able to get back out once I come in so there is a lot of tool putting away and taking out again, kinda slows your momentum if ya know what I mean. So next year not so many plans at least not really heavy work hauling stones away and making new beds. :)

Like Rozanne Rozannadanna would say, '"Hey, Mrs. Pirl, you ask a lot of questions!"

Waiting for rain. Will take Coleus cuttings. Will probably collect some seeds - not sure though. Will be planting lots, as I've outlined in the Fall Planting thread. Waiting for rain. Have lots of weeds and grass to get rid of. Will start to removed those horrible River Rocks used as a border. Will order bulbs. Will order more plants from Garden Crossings. Waiting for rain.

I'm waiting for rain, too, Victor. Like Al, I'm doing my best to make sure plants are correctly labeled.

ngam - it would be nice to have a dollar for the amount of times we both put everything away and then take it out again!

You guys are way more organized than I am. Plant location maps!

Victor, if I didn't know better, I'd swear you're dating yourself with that Rozanne quote!
Wouldn't it be nice if we could have mini tool sheds all around our properties that have duplicate tools in them so we wouldn't have to lug them around?
Right now I'm collecting seeds, making a new half-round bed against a large rock in the back yard, and getting ready to rearrange my perennials. I do that every year - I can't seem to keep them in the same place from year to year - maybe I'm obsessive/compulsive!

I did date myself. I dumped me.

I've left tools around the garden but it's a constant battle against rust.

Oh, I do plant location 'maps', too! My peri-menopausal mind won't let me remember where I put what once Spring comes around. Of course, if I didn't move my plants around so much, maybe I could remember . . .

Gotta be at least 50 to remember that!

not you Sue, Victor

This message was edited Sep 9, 2007 8:34 PM

Musical plants?

Al, I have to 'fess up to being (slightly) over 50, too - but a young over-50!

I lose things much too often: very annoying. I do wish there were mini-sheds for tools on each side of the house! Then when I lose something I could take it from the next shed and lose it again.

Well I have already divided and conquered everything I was going to do. I am now waiting on 2 bins of compost to finish composting and I will be adding that to my gardens. Otherwise I am done done done. I think LOL

Ha! Not while there are bulbs in the store!

One plan for next year is putting in a pool. Then I'll have to figure out what to plant around it.

No - then you'll have to figure out why you did it!!

Is it really that bad having one?

Unless you can afford a pool service, it ranges from another chore, when things are working, to a black hole that sucks your money, time, effort and mind. But don't let me give you a negative impression!

Well think of it this way when the kids are old enough they can have the pool chores!

I'm counting the days until that! Then I'm counting the days until the pool becomes another water garden / rain cistern.

I have a 25' above ground. I put weed mat and stone around the pool. Everyone loves the pool. I spend less time keeping the pool clean then I do picking vegatables !

My friend, Lynn, had their in-ground pool filled in and made a lovely garden around it, with a gorgeous gazebo, too.

Every year there are more requests in Southold to have pools filled in than for new ones.

Is that expensive? They just fill with dirt and remove the decking?

I'll send her this link and she can answer because I haven't the slightest idea as to the cost. It's a beautiful garden now. Her name at DG is Lundy, just so you know.

Thanks. Lucky Lundy!

victorgardener, i don't recall how much it cost to fill in the pool -not more than $500. we did alot of work ourselves, digging out old evergreens and removing chainlink fencing. then my daughter helped me lift the concrete pavers surrounding the pool. i ended up using them for a retaining wall. it turned out to be a great idea, now i have a beautiful garden, it's much more rewarding than picking weeds from between pool pavers!

Thank you Lundy! Couldn't agree more.

Victor - Lynn is the hardest working gardener I've ever known. She is truly amazing!

Coming from you that is high praise! I thought you were.

I thought pirl was too LOL

That may be my plan for next next year to fill in my little pond. I went for a stoll in my gardden after supper tonight. I noticed that the fountain inmy pond was spewing water outside the pool. I bent over the pond to correct it and the next thing I lostmy balance and fell in. I heard somone come out to the garbage and called for help. My son heard mr and came to my rescue. I managed to get out of the pond but couldn"t get on my feet..LOL I guess I'll have to act my age!!

Rozanne Rozannadanna - was it really that long ago??? Seems like yesterday!!

Don't feel bad - I did the same thing my first year with my pond. And it was through the ice in freezing water in December!! Hurt my knee on a rock. Took me about 1/2 hour to get the chill out.

I guess about 30 yrs ago for Rozanne. I was a teenager.

Joy - how are you feeling now after your dip in the pond? So glad your son was nearby to come to the rescue.

Long ago I told Lynn she should have named her garden "The Silk Purse". She really turned her property into a showplace and all of her sweat equity shows. She had ancient lilacs, never before trimmed/fed/cared for, old shrubs of every kind and removed them all herself. She made hundreds of trips to the landfill for mulch and wood chips and now has something so beautiful.

Very pretty!

I had my daughter's pool filled in because of Colin. The yard was fenced in but the pool itself was not. The pool was in a bad location - neighbor's trees hung over it and it was always filled with leaves. They never took care of the pool anyway - too much work and last year and this year did not even open it. It cost me $3,000 to have it done. They had to break up the cement (did it with a jack hammer) too allow for drainage and then used it for fill. They removed the side panels and then filled with sand and topsoil and there it sits. SIL said he would plant grass someday?????? They're both a bit on the lazy side and would rather take a nap. They look at a job or project to do and then decide to take a nap. That's why I did this project to make sure it got done for Colin's safety. I still love them though! Eleanor

Lundy...beautiful work! Maybe you should become a pool transformer contractor. Bet there are more than a few people who would like someone to just come by and do it. Pool today, gone tommorow.

Okay, so maybe I'm dreaming....but I've become fascinated with what this guy calls Arborsculpture http://www.arborsmith.com/ I'm not aspiring to the level of Axel Erlandson http://forestry.about.com/od/forestphotogalleries/ig/Axel-Erlandson/index.htm but I'd like to have some fun with this.