Garden Plans

It is the time of year where I start to get antsy for my garden plans. The snow outside is thick and seems to be ever falling, the sledding hill is covered with tightly-bundled kids and their sleds, my dog shivers when she sets foot outside. It’s definitely time to start daydreaming about spring and summer. The seed catalogues started arriving recently. I’m enjoying flipping through and looking at all the different plants. It’s like a breath of warm summer air touches my skin every time the daydreams begin.

Burpee’s catalogue (which I have no idea how I started getting) has a modular trellis net kit on page three that reminded me that I had plans to start up something similar in our raised beds, but never got around to it. I would like to think that I could make something much easier for cheaper that would be better suited for our beds.

This past gardening season, I did barely anything. I was working 60+ hours per week (80 if you count the amount of time I spent driving) and I was in training for my very first race – an Olympic-distance triathlon. Aaron was responsible for the garden and he did a good job. I felt very disconnected from my life, though, when my hands weren’t wrist deep in soil. I’m looking forward to a more relaxed schedule this gardening season and actually getting dirty.

I’d like to move the edible garden towards more heirloom and seed-saving varieties. I’d like to get the south-side bed put in. It’ll be a mix of edibles for animals, milkweed, and prairie plants. The front bed will be expanded with more hostas and shade-loving plants. The north-side bed will have more hostas and ground cover. I’d also like to find a bushy-style plant approximately three feet tall that will cover the foundation, flower, and have attractive foilage. In the backyard, the start of a south-side bed near the fence was completed this fall. It’s got plastic over it right now for killing the weeds (and a thick layer of snow). I’d like to do a mix of edible and ornamental in that bed with some tall sunflowers in the back corner. The only thing it currently has is ornamental grasses near the fountain and some peonies. I’ll add another raspberry plant this year and some more strawberries to their respective beds.

I’d like to add some sort of herb spiral garden, but I haven’t really decided what type is the most interesting. I’ve considered trying to build a vertical herb garden with the same concept as spiral gardens as far as water conversation/shade, but with a much smaller footprint.

When I really get involved in my daydreams, I imagine a plant in my fountain. I have no idea what kind.

What about you – are you dreaming about your garden?