EM and Sheepish, you've both got new places - got any special garden plans for this year? Joy's planning to grow for the birds - how about everyone else?

I've been trying to expand my raised bed strawberries for the last year, but haven't been getting much cooperation from Hubs. I CAN do the work myself but, darn it, that's why I'm busting my butt so that he only has to work part time, so I can have help on the bigger projects.

Either way, the berry bed will get done this spring; and then I may till out the rest of the row berries after the season. I'm also thinking about stealing my greenhouse frame back from the chickens (made a temp chicken house out of it last summer) and putting it on top of my big 8x8 bed in the north section of my garden. I could cover it with plastic for the early season growing; then roll up the plastic and use the metal ribs as supports for tomatoes and cukes, letting sweet potatoes (yes, I'm going to plant the darn things again!) grow to the insides of the beds. Something to think about, anyway.

Other than the same old, same old - tomatoes, peppers, corn, peas, broccoli, beans, yadda, yadda, yadda - I'm going to be more diligent in planting my succession salad squares this year. And more diligent at season extending - when the corn and tomato gluts hit each year, I'm not too enthusiastic about getting out there and planting late beans, broccoli and greens!

Pop still turns to the melon section of the catalogs first off, but John has made the decision to give up growing his pet Mr. Stripey tomatoes this year. Don't know what he will choose to grow in it's place, but he says he is tired of it being besieged by bugs and blossom end rot, and then having the tomatoes split in the gentlest of rains. I'm still looking for an intensely flavored tomato (high acid, I guess) for canning for winter salads.

The flower porn continues to roll in daily - I am now up to 32 catalogs. I drool over the perennial offerings - at least until I see the prices! $24 for one plant?! You got to be kidding me! My favorite local perennial purveyor cut back to where they just have a few annual bedding plants each spring, so I will have to search for a new supplier. Darn. (Did that sound sincere? Should I try again?) OH darn. I guess I'm going to have to go around to all the nurseries in the local area and see what they have. Drat. (Snort!)

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2005

Answers

Flower porn! LOLOLOL! I must have about 20 catalogs now. Fun to look at, but my goodness...I wouldn't order most of it. Not regional enough.

It will be interesting to garden in a place with a desert environment. With enough water, I hope to be able to grow melons. I will need to get some automatic watering stuff going though, as we won't be there all the time.

For here, I think I need to hire a high school person (or?) to help out. So little time, so much to do!!

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005

I pulled up my garden and planted grass seed. Of course, all the birds in the world came and ate it. Teach me for not getting hay on it in time.

I'd like to put some small stuff in, maybe inbetween my flower garden? Or maybe I'll look into a few containers placed here and there. The other garden didn't have enough light. I planted 32 Zuccinni plants and got only 2 zuccinni for goodness sakes.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005

32 zucchini plants and only 2 zucchinis? ROFLOL!!!! You poor dear! You are very brave to admit to that! Perhaps you're wise to chuck the veggie gardening bit! :)

Well gardening in this little city lot is kind of a joke, especially in comparison to my huge gardens of the past. We do have a lovely flower garden in the backyard in summer, although I only saw about two-thirds of it cuz we missed the time the deal was closing. Would love to landscape the front yard cuz not much has been done there, but nothing that takes much of my time since I plan on having very little time for anything other than my business by then. I also have that nice patio off my office at home where I am going to at least grow some heirloom tomatos and such. I do love flowers though; they are especially important to me in the city where there is so much pavement.

Ah spring................ (it's freekin cold here today, and wil be below zero thru sunday they say.) But I don't mind, cuz the sun's out! I'm also glad I don't have to worry too much about frozen pipes like I would if still out in the country with so little snow and such low temps.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2005

Polly sez: "I guess I'm going to have to go around to all the nurseries in the local area and see what they have. Drat. (Snort!)"

Yah, laugh now. When you can't find what you want, see if you're still laughing. I'm mad at the marigold producers. They came out with a variety I particularly liked, everyone had it, now it's nowhere to be found. Grrr!

Anyhoo, I'm thinking about a garden plot again, but thinking of just planting about ten different kinds of sunflowers. Just to enjoy them. Wouldn't have to put up a #&*#^@&#*$&@#^ fence nor take it down at the end of the season. That was the worst part about the garden plots here. If I could have a permanent fence, that would be fine, but I got too sick of doing it twice a year. I'd just get one section too, instead of my previous three.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2005

Hey Joy, are they still giving you trouble about walking your dog?

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2005

Not recently. I insisted on meeting with the people who were "concerned" (perhaps you remember that) and having our complex manager present. It was all on a pleasant level, but I think I made it clear that I wasn't going to crumble under pressure.

Blanca (the dog) is greatly improved, though she'd still like to eat darn near every dog she sees around here. If I spot the dog ahead, I can even keep her from barking, though she whines and grumbles and complains and makes tiny little barks under her breath. More of a low WOOF I guess. It's really pretty funny. And it's hard for anyone to legitimately complain about her, because the OTHER dog is usually the one that starts barking first and keeps on after I've made mine be quiet.

Her getting a bit older has helped, I think, but more importantly, she took the beginning obedience course (or "Family Dog"), and then we did an agility class, just for her to have some fun. She was a star in the Family Dog class (all that work paid off, finally!) and did quite well in agility. She is not very scaredy when it comes to all the equipment. She went through the collapsed tunnel sleeve with no problem. The weave poles were the hardest, for both of us. The human has to get trained too.

We aren't doing one currently, but probably will repeat the Agility I in March. She probably could go into Agility 2, but I thought maybe I'd just make her really strong on the beginning stuff. She is excellent at doing the "obstacles", but has a tendency to run off and not pay attention to me at the end, so we have to work on that. Fortunately, we do this indoors (on mats, for which my feet and legs are grateful). My goal is just to get her to pay more attention to me and also to do something that is fun for her. She certainly seems to enjoy it.

There. FAR more than you wanted to know, eh? ;-)

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2005

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program: "What are you going to grow this summer?"

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2005

No,no! Carry on! I thought thread drift was required!

I rarely have anything specific in mind beyond generalities when I go to a nursery, Joy. Like "Balloon flower, pink" or "Butterfly bush, purple, pink, blue or white". And, being as I rarely come home with just what I went after, or what I went after at all, having been seduced away by something altogether different... Have I told you about the Jasmine I bought last spring while looking for cherry tomatoes? It is so gorgeous, and the flowers smell soooo good. And even tho they are white, they dry a medium pink, and keep a good scent, so they are perfect for homemade potpourri. I think I'll buy a gardenia this year.

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2005

Well, Polly, even with just a general idea, such as I want a pretty lungwort for this shady spot, or a blue-leafed hosta, is often the way I go too. Only to discover that either they have none this year or they did, but they just sold the last one (usually because they only had about five of whatever). {sigh} And of course when it comes to food crops, such as tomato seedlings or strawberry plants, the variety IS important. Just another of the many frustrations of gardening. I can never find the fabrics I want when I go shopping either. Sometimes I can be flexible, sometimes not. La la la, life goes on, same as it ever was! ;-)

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2005

When I get my new puppy, I would want to teach it either obedience or agility. Hint, hint...when I get my new puppy....

I absolutely love butterfly bushes. I had one that had three colors in one. It died off but I had some seedlings that would come up in different colors. In front of my house, I have 4 of them that I allowed to get hugh. They also cover my rose bushes so the beetles don't get at them. They last from spring til fall and look so much like lilac which the one bush I have only bloomed once for me.

The only other thing I would love to have grow for me is poppy. I keep trying but I think I accidentally pull alot of plants when I pull up the weeds. I usually let everything grow until I can tell if it is weed or not. By then it is usually so overgrown. Sigh

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2005

Ali gave Lotus a gift certificate for xmas for a big garden center here and she went nuts there last weekend, telling us excitedly how everything is on sale and dirt cheap. Among other things,she went home with two big PALMS to put in that little bitty house she shares with Matt! Couldn't resist them, and methinks its a bit of subconscious claim-staking also, since he does take up a lot of room with his two pianos!

-- Anonymous, January 15, 2005

I'm not sure quite what to do for gardening this year. I have no idea what's going to come up at the Soap Lake house. There's lots of area in garden, but everything except the trees and shrubs are under lots of snow. There is a lovely white birch tree in the front yard. I think I'll have to install a drip system on timers over there.

For here, I'm really torn between putting in vegetables. I know I'll be gone on the weekends a lot, so I should be nice to myself and not stress myself out about all the work weeding, etc. However, I really hate to buy vegetables at the store. I guess I could shop the farmer's markets. I will need to work the flower beds here, and finish up all the perennials I've got going. Sure hope everything makes it out of this cold snap!

I let the chickens into my big vegetable garden this winter (we have 6-foot fenced areas adjacent to each other; one contains the poultry yard and the other the big garden). The chickens ate all the kale (volunteers; I never can get rid of it) down to the stems. They're doing a good job on keeping the weeds off. Looks like they think strawberry plants might be weeds though! I'll probably have a few survivors though. I still have beets, carrots,and spinach (oh and a few of the walking onions). Guess I'll go pick some and roast some vegetables for dinner for tomorrow night.

Stay warm!

-- Anonymous, January 15, 2005

sheepish, I hear ya about stressing yourself on the garden thing!It's a good way to begin hating gardening altogether iffen you feel behind all the time!

Would be cool if you could find a farmer's market that was rather on the way to one or the other of your places so you could pick up stuff as a regular routine. As for me, I have found I'm so busy I don't miss the veggie gardening as much as I thought I would. I do miss the IDEA of it; I guess there was some ego involved in knowing/bragging about growing all our own food! And I may eventually feel the need again, because I DID love gardening.

As far as the veggies go, we are buying everything at WholeFoods/coops now since we put nothing up except salsa and pesto, and it IS damn expensive to buy organic, not that I'm gonna complain about the growers and grocers getting their due for doing the right thing. But all during the growing season (about 20 weeks) we really love our CSA, which is pain-free and really not that expensive when one eats as many veggies as we do. I think we paid $500 for the season for a full share, but they also sell half-shares.

-- Anonymous, January 16, 2005

CSA is a great idea. I just always pictured myself as the supplier, not the subscriber tho! Living in 2 places will be interesting, but hopefully a way to segue to quieter living eventually.

Yeah, we'll stop at the wineries and the markets on the way to or fro.

What the heck. I'm getting braces tomorrow...won't be able to eat for 2 1/2 years anyway! What am I thinking! Top Ramen aweigh!!!!

-- Anonymous, January 16, 2005

Special garden plans???? Yup...more sweet potato slips for me!!! The 7 pints I canned are absolutely delicious and I hope to plant more than the ten slips I put in last summer. And also, like you, Polly, I really have to pay more attention to succession planting with salad crops. I do have a long growing season for cool weather crops and why not take advantage...right??

As for "flower porn"....I could use some suggestions for planting perennial shrubs on the NW side of our house. Something that would protect the concrete foudation from wind and could withstand zone 5 winter weather!!????

BTW Dee...I've seen Shitz Tzu's in obedience trials, but agility...??

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2005

Hey folks...I really, really could use some information about shrubbery (sp.?) for the NW side of our house. Please don't force me to go to the "other" forum for info :-) :-)!!!!

Thanx!

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2005

Re: shrubs

Some people really hate this plant, but I've come to like it again, in a retro sort of way: Aucuba japonica (I think that may not be the right spelling but it's close). I planted some of the gold-flecked kind in the shade, and it looks like dappled shade. I also have a variety of laurel on the north side of our house, and it's almost too prolific. There's always azaleas and rhodies...

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2005