A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2007 What are you going to do first?

C'mon you fellow nutbars - I know you're just like me - I know you'll be out there with your rakes, up to your ankles in mud, picking at things.

What are you going to do first? Have you been thinking about it?

I'm going to go around and take off all the fridge racks, bottles and leaves from things I've been protecting.

Then I'm going to traipse around the neighbourhood to see what everybody's throwing out in the way of bricks, railway ties, etc.

Trips to the lakeshore as soon as possible - more rocks!

My first jobs will be removing the tin and plastic from where the new flower bed is planned and getting it ready for the flowers that I will be starting in a few months...I am also going to clean the weeds out of one bed I gave up on last summer..if I don't I won't be able to enjoy the iris that is in it.

You know I did that last year and I never got around to doing anything with them...so I suppose that will be one of the first things I do...design a new flower bed..that and build a new bed along my back fence for my tomatoes. I have to move them this year because of the Verticillium Wilt they got last summer in my vegetable garden. Oh, I just can't wait!!
Christina

I'm still having to amend soil and dig the terraces out of the slope. Very slow going for me.

I don't have to go anywhere to get rocks...They grow wild here in Arkansas In fact on my small acreage someone previously painstakenly removed most of the rock, or bigger rocks I should say, So I slowly have been hauling rocks back onto the property from the gravel road in front of my house. I know people who go by think I am nuts when they see me with my wheel barrow picking up rocks along the sides of the road. I use rocks to outline all of my flower beds.

I have to dig up all my landscaping to lift my house and add a basement under it, It is going to be alot of work not to mention trying to figure out what is what. The headache is here already just thinkin about it.

Wow Tamara that is a biggy. Sorry to hear your into major renovations. What all are you going to put in your basement when you get it?

Well it wasn't expected. But when I rearranged my plants on the window shelf I noticed there were some brown leaves on the purple passion. So I took it down unwound it from it's heart shaped supports and began pruning. I never can leave something alone once I start lol. So to make a long story short I now have several vines in water for Brother Batiste who expressed an interest in having them. So it's all good. It's so cool that our flowers go everywhere.

Wild rocks is the only way to go! Ha Ha!

You wouldn't catch me paying big bucks at the garden depot for rocks - you can find 'em everywhere.

Same with bricks.

I don't find bricks here very often...but rocks are plentyful and depending on how strong you are how big of rocks you can work with. I have a friend who collects the flat rocks and stacks those around her beds and look very attractive, but hunting for flat rocks is too time consuming for me. Another thing this same friend does though which I thought was a good idea: She hunts for just the right sized flat rock and then cleans it uses some sort of paint and then makes label type rocks in her herb garden, she also puts some sort of sealer over the paint she uses and they last for a long time that way, they are very nice looking, and if someone was artiscally inclined little pictures could be added.

Let's see well at home I can just enjoy my garden. At the shop I will first make sure everything is labeled right for my customers, expand the garden, finish taking up the posts from the chain linked fence, plant containers, plant containers and plant containers.

I can't wait to make more troughs. I sold 7 last year and have just 3 left.

Oh and head out boulder hunting!! That can happen as soon as the farmers plow up their fields, way before it is safe to plant.

Yes - good idea about farmers' fields, Rue.

We've got mild weather this week, so I've been walking around the walk thinking, thinking, thinking.

Everything seems to be in the right place - all I have to do is clean out as I go along, put things in as they're ready.

I don't know where I think I'm going to build these beds though . . . maybe I'll just do this veggie thing in containers outside the window.

I have done the same thing around my flowerbeds as Comfrey does . I go around with my garden cart and gather up all the nice flat rocks for edging .I like to fit them together so there are no openings between them . The bigger ones are used for focal points . I need to redo the edging rocks . They eventually end up overgrown , and covered with dirt .
I am not contemplating any plantings yet , and it will be the last of April before I can safely set out the indoor plants .
On nice days I get out and do some cleaning up .

I'm gonna open the window so my plants can get some air, since i have an indoor garden for the most part

I'm hoping for some rain so it will be easier to pull up some of the burmuda grass growing in the area. I've been lazy about working around the tier because the ground is uneven and I'm afraid of falling.

There you motivated me and I went out and drilled holes in all the mimosa trees and added a good dollop of salt to each and everyone. Lets see how they like that. I'm sure that unless I can somehow kill the root I'm out of luck but I keep trying.

Yaaargh! Did someone say 'mimosa' !!!
TK , I rue the day I planted one on our new place ! I am working on cutting down all the seedlings , and placing cans over the stumps to shade/smother them out . ( A dear elderly friend taught me that trick . ) Their roots go to China !

I went out today and replaced the tines on the tiller. Added lime and some nitrogen to the garden soil and tilled it all in.

I watered my strawberries, and asparagus bed.

I found a mimosa seedling growing in my garden. I think it was in a bag of leaves that I picked up in Roanoke to use as mulch on my garden. It's 2 or 3 years old now. I planted it in my front yard where I'm starting a hummingbird bed. I know I'll have to deal with seedlings, but the hummingbirds love the flowers. I'll just have to keep ahead of the game and pull them when they are small.

I'm in the process of pruning my fruits. The figs, apples, and raspberries are finished. I need to mulch the raspberries, but I wanted to wait till the ground was frozen to discourage rodents from burrowing in the roots. I still need to prune the grapes, gooseberries, currants, and blueberries. I'm waiting to prune the peaches till they bloom. I don't need to prune them much as I was judicious about my summer pruning last year.

the mimosa root travels and the new trees come from that. And I haven't been able to dig one out of the garden yet. That's why I've been trying to drill holes as close to the ground as possible to kill these things. If you cut them down they just develop multiple trunks and the root gets fatter.

There are some seedlings that come up from a tree on the south lot here - they are big. I showed them here once and it was thought to be some kind of blackberry tree - which is true, 'cause they do have black berries.

They are heavy rooted things - I thought they were some neat plant, but found otherwise.

I might do something with a couple of them though.

I wouldn't mind a tree in one spot I have in mind.

I'm going great guns on some juniper clippings I did in the fall - I'm hoping to transplant them into that square where I'm taking out the root of that austrian pine we had to cut.

Carly, that sounds like a mulberry tree to me. They have fruits that look a lot like blackberries, only they are longer.

Well I didn't start my garden journal until today and then I had to go back to the 1st of January for the first seeds I planted for my 2006 garden but it's all up to date now. Also I make little garden stakes for all of the sprouts. I kept on forgetting where I put what so now I would have that problem for the rest of the seedlings. I'm feeling like I got a lot accomplished today.

TK, my basement will have a furnace room, a bedroom for teen daughter, a laundry/sewing room and a storage room. Daughter's room upstairs will be knocked out to make a larger living room.

Wow, you are so ambious. I'm looking forward to many many pictures as the remodel progresses. Good luck with all that you are doing.