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Monday, January 14, 2013

Seasonal disorder

I can't be the only gardener who has this problem; come wintertime, I become gardening obsessed, contemplating huge lists of plants to buy in the spring, beds to rearrange or create, the whole nine yards.  I think this is a result of not being able to do anything, but the real problem is I have two "main" hobbies right now.  Gardening and crazy quilting, which are both essentially great seasonal hobbies.  When the weather is nice, I can garden, and when I can't go outside, I can work on my never-ending project backlog.  The problem is, I get amped up about gardening when I can't do it, and then miss the 2-3 week window of "spring" where temperatures are pleasant enough that you can stand to be outside without wanting to find a pool to hunker down in with an iced drink, or in lieu of that, a nice walk in freezer to make your home.

Spring blows by here in a flash, and I always seem to miss it.  I'm going to try and be better about it this year though.  I already planted a ton of bulbs, I got inspired thanks to Helen Yoest saying something about still being able to put pots together, and when I went to Home Depot, everything was 50% off.  You know what that means, twice as many bulbs!
Yes, I'm putting up a picture of bulb packages.  Eat your heart out, Southern Living!
So, other than that, I'm going to try and catalog some of my ideas here, wish lists, etc.  I want to plant some blueberry bushes, and the reading I've done says go with Rabbiteyes and at least two other types for cross polination: Brightwell, Climax, Delite, Tiflblue were all recommended. Will I have room in my yard for 3 blueberry bushes? Probably not.  Maybe I could put them in the front yard if I pulled the boxwoods.


I'm also kind of obsessing over the idea of doing my vegetable gardens in some raised wood beds that I build, harnessing the manic wintertime energy into some hardscaping.  I've got some plans for squash, peppers, cucumbers, some zinnias, maybe even a melon.  I'm still trying to figure out where to squeeze these in to my yard, but right now I'm thinking directly off the deck.  

Speaking of the deck, I've got this idea to get a long galvanized metal feed trough and make all my herbs in one big pot this year.  I think it will neaten up my deck which is really getting overgrown with pots, and make watering them a little easier.  

Lastly, I got the new Plant Delights catalog in the mail, and I think I'll go through it with post its and mark all the plants I'm thinking about getting, and then try and figure out where I can put them.  I need a lot of new ones, I lost almost all the Agastaches I planted a few years ago.  I think the drainage just isn't good enough for them, plus they were super marked down plants from death row at Lowes, so they didn't get the greatest start in life.  

What about everyone else -- any fun plans? Anyone else find they use up all their fire and good ideas while its too cold to plant? 




11 comments:

  1. It might be too cold to plant, but I have been busy pruning and pulling weeds, which know no season.

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    1. ugh, I hear you. I've got so many weeds.... and my backyard during the winter gets the texture of a sponge, it is not fun to try and weed. I got all my pruning done though.

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  2. If you have space and a sunny window you could get started now on seeding your herb garden. The secret is to grow perennials so you only have to plant once unless you want to move them. I plant very few annuals.

    Bulbs are great for your area, ornamental grasses too. Some plants like parsley should stay outside in zone 7 just fine.

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    1. Oh I know parlsey stays outside fine, I let mine go to seed the first year, and I think I'm running an extremely unprofitable parsley farm in my backyard now. But it keeps the swallowtails happy. Thanks for stopping by!

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    2. Haha! "extremely unprofitable parsley farm!" I have an extremely unprofitable something or other in my backyard too, though I don't know if I could call it a farm of any sort. Well, possibly chickweed. It's too bad we can't eat magnolia cones. There are a lot of those right now.

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  3. The last couple winters I spent totally obsessed about planning new gardening beds and such! I am a little sad that my garden planning has ground to a halt with moving and whatnot. I have several blueberry bushes; I think I have Brightwell, Climax, and Premier. They are growing quite well, but still young so I haven't gotten many blueberries yet (so far the birds have gotten most of them). Such a great addition to the garden! I hear you about squeezing plants in. I have (had) a rather small lot, so I only have so much sun and so much shade. And of course, I spend most of my time here amending the dirt! Enjoy planning!

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    1. I'll really be looking forward to your new gardens, and thanks for the recommendations for blueberries. Hopefully you'll get a bigger lot at your new place!

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  4. I would love to get out in the garden to do more clean-up, pull weeds and plant daff bulbs, but other things keep getting in the way. Argh!

    Thanks for the tips about where to find good trellises. I'd still like to design my own, it's just difficult to find the time to make them. The two we have were just the sturdiest-looking ones at Lowe's.

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    1. I'm really lucky to have my stepfather make me an arbor as a birthday gift. Probably one of my most favorite gifts of all time. I need to get a picture up. Things are in the way here too, and so many weeds. My weeds are a little out of control. Maybe next weekend I'll dedicate the weekend to mulching and weeding.

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  5. My biggest garden project right now has been keeping the mulch in the beds. The rain keeps floating it out and there has been a flock of Robins here for a couple of weeks not scratching it out everywhere too! I've given up for the time being trying to keep it all in the beds. I should be planning more right now too.

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  6. I'm just trying to keep on top of our early spring. At the same time trying to check a few things off on my long list of improvement projects. I'm always trying to tweak things to make them look better. I wish they sold Agastache at our Lowes. I swing by the rescue table also. In fact some of my best plants have come from the rescue table. I aways feel good that I have given them their life back. Happy Spring to you and your garden.

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