I'm in the same boat,gg. I do have everything moved that needs to be, but I'm still planting stuff, I finally did get my hedges trimmed, I have a huge pile of mulch to get out. It never ends. And now that I have to mow and weedeat too, I'll never catch up. But I love it, don't you ?
Carol

I did not set up my Swedish Maypole - don't have a Linden tree! We used to celebrate May Day in elementary school in California, the pole, ribbons, music and dancing and all. It was so much fun and so pretty. It was a great way to welcome Spring!

As for my gardening....it has been chilly and raining, raining, raining for over a week now. I am sick of these dreary, gray skies. There has been statewide flooding, terrible storms, tornadoes and the works. The weeds are growing like....well, like weeds from hell! It is getting away from me.

I need to set out my tomatoes and peppers and plant the rest of my veggie garden, but it is too wet and too chilly to risk it. The rains are all but ruining my iris blooms and bending their stalks over and down to the ground. Even my snowball bush that is blooming got bent down from all the rain. I had to put a metal pipe in the ground and tie it to that.

However, everything in the garden is growing well, so I guess I can't really complain, and after the awful drought we've had. I am pleased that the drought appears to have ended. The cabbages and lettuces are really growing. So are the broccoli plants! Wow! This weather is like the Brits enjoy my Scottish DHM says), so my ROSES are loving it! What gorgeous blooms and so many!

But I am a California sunshine girl and won't really be happy until all this EXCESS rains stops (at least for awhile), and it warms back up above 55 degrees. I am the proverbial lizard - I need my dry, hot rock to sit upon and bask in the sunshine to be really happy. (hehehe)

I hope things get better for you guys. It is so disappointing when your gardening is going so rotten.

~Annie

Break it down into small projects and don't stress?

Let's see -- our last frost was supposed to be April 15th, but it came a few days later. I rushed and rushed to plant up through last week, then we had 5? days of 90 degrees and the last plants were struggling. Now, I'm going off on vacation for a week. Just had dinner with the son who is staying here and all he agreed to was to water the container plants! Who knows what will die in 7 days?

I felt like I squeezed a month's worth of work into 10 days and I didn't finish. There are so many weeds out there! I am not starting any new beds this year, but I gave several a make-over due to poor design, wrong plant choices, losses from the winter or -- I just plain didn't like it! I'm relying heavily on annuals that are direct sown to help save the look this year.

Cameron

I have to say that I am mostly on schedule this year (at least this spring, I don't know about the other seasons, lol). I am surprised about it. Usually, I am one of those people that just keep putting things off.

I put up the maple poles in the veggie garden and strung wire in-between them for pole beans (which I hope will get large enough to create privacy, since quite a few cars go thru our alley). And I just got done with top-dressing the front shade garden with good soil. It took five bags of top soil, a bag of steer manure, a bag of Mushroom mix, some homemade compost, and also a can of alfalfa pellets (which I actually remembered to get last week!). Mixed that all up on the sidewalk and hauled it to the front. I also planted some veggies today. It is ten days until the official 'planting date' for tenders, but I thought I would risk it. Planted out a few seedling tomatoes that were in sore need of planting. Planted some lettuce and curly endive in pots a few days ago. I am eager to see how they do; I have only tried growing them once before and a long time ago at that.

I still need to do a bit of weeding that needs to be done. I also have to get two posts and some more wire to make a trellis (to keep a neighbor from always peeping over). I have a honeysuckle vine planted in the area, just waiting for me to erect this trellis.
I am also thinking about digging up more grass for new beds. There is a big plant sale next month and they have a whole laundry-list of goodies I need (ok, just want!). ;-)
Happy May 1st!
CMK

Well, I am very confused!! Our season seems to be one month in advance......no kidding - I want to put late season plants out!!!
CMK - I'd like to see what those supports look like!

cheers, Nancy.

This is year 3 for us. We've worked very hard in the back & it really looks great right now. Although it keeps raining & I'm starting to wonder about all of the plants I planted for very dry conditions (it gets so dry in the summer...usually). We're working on the new front bed now. The plants for it are here, the peonies planted last fall are up, the spring bulbs have bloomed, but now DH wants to redo the bed line. He likes to spray grass to kill it, wait a week, then plant. I like to get rid of all of the roots the old fashioned way (dig them up!). I asked him to please let me use a tiller. He doesn't think that's a good idea. *sigh*

But, I don't feel nearly as stressed as the last two years. We're a lot further along, so I feel pretty good. Plus, I got a lot of cosmos seeds in (waited till June last year, too busy planting plants), so I'm happy about our progress, overall.

I'm not in a rush at all, sorry to say to those of you who are! But my main job this year is to clean up from the neglect of last year and to tend to the new grass seeds I planted this spring. I've purchased nothing new except a few pkts. of seeds and a cute little wicker half basket stuffed with red petunias, white alyssum and some annual vines. It will be perfect for hanging on my garden gate. I just need to add a checkered ribbon to it so it really says country!

My plans for a raised bed potager were nixed by the Rancher and he made a well composted garden where I thought we had agreed to make a patio (I'm so bummed!) so now I have a retaining wall to put in and a set of steps to make leading down into it. I guess I'll make it all from cedar logs. Then I just have to plant it. We are still the whole month of May from our last freeze date and from past experience, I have learned to wait. Just as well, the tomatoes haven't sprouted and the various pepper varieties are only two inches tall. I think I'll just make the whole back yard a wild flower meadow and skip the mowing this year. That'll sure cut down on a lot of work! I'm going to plant pie pumpkins and watermelon in my cottage garden and let them meander amongst my flowers. I still have a few flower seeds to sow and that will be about it. No new plants for me this spring. We'll see about later, maybe some in the fall.

MeMo

I am pretty well caught up, but the rains have slowed down any outside work. That means my daily forays into the garden doing a couple hours to keep ahead have come to a halt! That will put the weeds ahead and me behind. I follow Cameron's plan of not thinking about all of it....just pick the most necessary job and get it done.....then move on the the next one.

I do hate that the rains will ruin the iris and mine are just starting....and, of course, I didn't get the peonies caged so they will be laying on the ground if this doesn't stop soon.

It is still better than drought, so I am grateful.

We were 48° this morning after being in the mid-60's overnight....furnace is back on.

Glenda

I'm pretty much where I wanted to be when I started back in January. Off and on we had some nice weather through the winter so that helped a lot for making new beds, moving hardy perennials, and planting out wintersown seedlings. I still have one area that I just plain hate in the perennial bed. Nothing will grow there. Everything I've planted in that area just sits and eventually rots away. It's not a drainage issue. I'm thinking slugs or pillbugs. I made a mental note to do something about it this fall. I may just pull out whatever manages to survive and till the entire area after I load it down with composted leaves.

My plants are growing by leaps and bounds over the past two weeks. My potager has been planted. My annuals have been direct sown and those started in cups and pots have been planted out. My daily chores include watering a few things. I'm determined this summer to have more established plants that require less water than what I planted last year. Planting out early really helped.

Today I will spend some time pruning the azaleas to encourage new growth. I need to get that dogwood tree in the front yard pruned. I noticed lots of dead and diseased wood in it yesterday. I'm afraid I may have to chop it way back to save it.

I already have a list of things to do this fall. Trees and shrubs that need to be moved, again. And the front bed already needs an overhaul. I just don't like what I've done.

Well I could scream help but I don't think it would do any good. lol.

I'm at the point where the plants need to get out in the greenhouse and yet the temps are still dropping a little to low. I did move some of the perennials out yesterday, go or don't at this point I don't care. I also planted some out in the garden with cozycoats...again hope this works. lol. It will I have used cozycoats before.

It is definately time to start go go going here. The yard clean up can be started....still lots of snow in the side yard and garden....but the rest is pretty much gone. After moving the benches and chairs out yesterday, I sat down and just took some time to look at the little bulbs that were blooming.

I have roses to prune, strawberry and asparagus beds to clean up and move? I bought 2 trees and rhodo yesterday that will need to be planted soon. Which means some of last years new garden has to be moved.

One of the roses has to be moved to a better location. The bearded iris have to be checked and cleaned up. New plant stands have to be built. Planters have to be planted up, compost has to be brought in and put on all the gardens, and the list goes on and on....never ending.

Brenda, slow down and enjoy what you have. Don't look at the big picture of work to do....take a deep breath and take your time and enjoy what your are doing. There really is no timeline. If it gets done thats great if it doesn't oh well. Pick something and keep at it a little at a time. Don't forget to sit down and just enjoy what you have done.

Sierra

lol. Well, I wasn't too stressed about my schedule till this morning. Instead of moving bushes, I need to dig my septic tank up - well, just the lid. This wasn't on the agenda!! I also need to go under the house to check the pipes. Waaaa!!
Here's hoping there isn't a big bill attached!!

Nancy.

-Nancy, I will be sure to post pics of the bean poles as soon as I get my camera going! I have to say, it doesn't look too bad. It was simple an cheap to make. I used eight ft. branches from my own trees, and just bought heavey duty wire at HD for $5.

I went plant shopping today! I got: three different hot pepper plants, a red annual salvia, two pony packs of pansies, a 'Red Cauli' Sedum to replace the one that died, and SIX tomato plants (not counting the five I started by seed). I have no clue what I am going to do with them all. I got Pink Brandywine, Black Cherry, Sungold, Purple Cherokee, Green Zebra, and Kelloggs Breakfast. I really bought too many I think. But I bought from this lady and her family that sell them, and have a little greenhouse in their yard.

I need to get some more pots and soil ASAP!
CMK

Brenda - Moving trees and shrubs? Yikes! No wonder you are behind! That sounds like a major project!

I'm actually amazingly on schedule for once, which I can hardly believe. I feel like I've done a ton more garden work in April than normal, mainly because I planted my fruit trees and got my load of compost delivered then. I'm still deciding about where to move some of my perennials, but am worried I've waited too long on some. I just started hardening off my cabbage - the first thing to move outside. We also just enlarged the mainly empty bed at the back of the house, mainly to improve drainage, but now I need to fill it with something! I'm tempted to post a Wanted - Hostas on freecycle, lol. (North side of house). Tho I suppose fall would've been the time to do that - hostas are just waking up here.

Anyhow, belated Happy May Day, everone!

Still raining here today and supposed to continue.
Everything is saturated and how!
Everything is green and lush but too much growth and when the heat comes back it will be a jungle (I am not kidding!) to weed and trim back. It doesn't look like a garden anymore, just a lot of overgrown vegetation, like a long forgotten yard.
And the fun part of cleaning this all up is that the copperheads and other vipers will be out in all that vegetation! Man, oh, man!
One extreme to the next.
However, my potted tomatoes and other plants look terrific! Roses galore coming on now. The rain is spoiling the irises though - kind of making them grow really well and make blooms and then spoiling the blooms. (grrrr)
I cut some irises everyday to enjoy in the house. Cut a bouquet yesterday of Bachelor buttons, Daisies, Wallflowers, pink Roses, Dianthus, and Sweet William. The kitchen smells so good.
I will have a ton of weeds to cultivate when this ends. I hope this isn't going to be another chilly, wet summer because if it is, there won't be any tomatoes or okra. Root veggies tend to get very fibrous and fork when it rains to much.
We shall see.

It does feel great out though, I must say. Nice fresh, cool, moist air. Sure helping clear my sinuses.
I had to turn my furnace back on today too. (Brrrr). My son helped me drag all my tropicals out of the greenhouse this past week. They seem to be enjoying this rain, but I was concerned about the temps. So far nothing to worry with.

This too shall pass.

~Annie

Next week I should get a lot done. Wish it was raining here like it seems to be everywhere else. I transplanted about 70 trees and shrubs and they all need to be watered. It was a huge job, but one that I hope is worth it.

Seems like most of you are on top of things, good for you! When I grow up I want my tree work to be done so I can be as organized and on-time as the rest of you.

We had a rough winter, snow came in early Nov and never left until March. No thaws at all, so I didn't get to do any work, no headstart with moving rocks etc.

At least we don't still have snow, Sierra!

Thanks for the commiseration :-)

Brenda, 70 trees and shrubs, I think my back is aching in sympathy.
Are you starting a new area or? Whatever it is I'm sure it will be quite lovely when it's done.

I'm still plodding along in my garden, after the winter we had I'm just removing everything that died and just concentrating on clean up, hopefully next spring the garden will look much better. Right now there's lots of bare spots, but, to a plantaholic in a small garden that a good thing right?

I just got a list of some of the new Echinaceas that will be available this spring, how on earth am I going to narrow it down so it will fit in my little black box on wheels.

This entails my yearly jaunt across the pond to my favorite nursery, I can only bring back what I can fit/stuff in the little black box.
I can see flowers being cut off, plants taken out of pots and put in plastic bags (had lots of experience at this :o). Oh the confessions of a plantaholic.

Some of the newer Echinaceas will be Tomato Soup, Mac and Cheese, Flame Thrower, Pink Poodle, Firebird, Coral Reef and Green Jewel, decisions, decisions, decisions and then there's all the other plants. I'm in big trouble.

Annette

Gottagarden,
I'm in the same boat as you! So far, I'm estimating that I've spent over 20 hours weeding and pruning in the garden. I'm still not done. I'm hoping to "catch" up this weekend. I never got to sowing my seeds either. Oh, well, you can't do it all, can you?

Feliz cinco de mayo
por todos en Mexico y de los Estados Unidos!

(Been so long since I used my Spanish, I forget. Hope that's correct)

In my once sleepy little South Cal town, I recall the colorful fiestas, the fragrant flowers, the happy music and THE FOOD! Ayeeee! Mui delicioso!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!