I'm sort of half way through what I started, it's taking me longer than I thought but I'm still slugging away at it. My clump of Joe Pye Weed has decided to take off all over the place after 4 years of doing nothing and I have perennial geraniums I still have to divide, replant and dispose of. I guess I'm 2/3 through my little revamp project.
I finally found 2 Haku Ookan Clemies to scramble through the rambling roses I've planted on the back of the shed. It looks a little lopsided as the rambler on one side hasn't taken off yet, as I couldn't get another Island Dawn I took a cutting which I think has taken :o)
I'm going to have to leave the fine tuning till next year but hope to get all the major stuff done by the end of the summer. Oh to be young again but only if I can keep all the lessons I've learned along the way.

Annette

I did what I said...I rearranged and shovel pruned before bringing home any new plants. The new plants were for the butterfly garden (asclepias, tithonia, etc).

I planted more snapdragons (red ones), but could never find any of the light yellow that are doing so well for me and overwintered.

Then I had EXTRA plants...I did the greyhound rescue plant sale. The notices of the open house arrived at most homes, the same day as the open house. I knew about the open house in advance since I was taking plants. So, I came home with extra plants that I've tried to literally squeeze into my garden. We donated 100% of the sales to the greyhounds and didn't even take out our personal costs of purchasing wholesale.

Back to my plans...groundcovers...I have ajuga 'golden glow' sitting in a flat. I've gotten cold feet about using that as a groundcover for fear that it will take over!

I've not yet planted anything around the outdoor shower. My colocasia are doing great, but I didn't get those divided in time to move to the outdoor shower.

This is probably the only space around my house that is designated as a "garden" that is actually empty. The rest of the garden is so chock full of plants because I had to divide so many and then adopt the fund-raiser left overs. I don't know where I'll squeeze in another thing!

I've planted only 3 planters for the front porch (angelonia and osteospermum), but haven't done anything for the pool deck.

I still have to trim the rest of the lavender back. It grew so large this year since I had skipped the fall trimming due to drought.

I usually keep my blog updated with what's happening.

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: gardening blog

I have lots of projects to work on. So far, I've been cleaning up and fertilizing roses and hydrangeas.
Hubby has dug out a veggie garden for me, I'm a total newbie, so we'll see how it goes.
I have lots of w/s babies to plant, I have several areas of sod to dig out.
I planted some annuals in hanging baskets and got my wheel barrow somewhat planted, still have more to do there.
Have to plant some things to grow up my arbor.Have 2 chairs to cut out so I can plant in those, got an old wringer washer to plant in- actually, have several things to plant in.
Waiting to have my dad come up and build my potting shed, we're tearing down an old corn crib to recycle in to that.
Don't know if I'll get it all done, but sure going to try.
This winter was tough on lots of my plants, so I'm watching to see if they'll recover or not. It was a very cold one.
Mostly, I'm just thrilled to be outside again.
Good luck with everything you all have going on.

Where to start????? - While I didn't have a set plan I knew that last year was a wake up call with the severe drought and some changes needed to be made so over the winter I scoured the seed catalogs for drought tolerant plants and ornamental grasses. This spring has been a revamping of existing gardens to make them more drought tolerant, preparing a couple of places for rain barrels and finding other ways to conserve water - gardens however never end for me because while I am in the middle of one 'project' my mind is working and dreaming of another. This forum enables my addiction so I have you'll to blame if I never get done - lol .....

Lynne

I'm in the process of laying newspaper, compost and mulch in my front yard. Last year, I experimented with a small section and the newspaper, compost and mulch combination not only stopped the weeds in their tracks, the plants in that area are huge this year (even though some are only 1 to 1 and half years old). I have a fairly long front yard so it is a time-consuming process. What I'm also liking about it is that it helps me see the holes where I need to plant something. I also had some drainage issues this past winter in my front yard because we had so much rain and a water line up by the road in front of my house leaked and it took forever to get them to fix it. So, I had to pick up the stones on my pathway and I haven't put them back down yet. I need to get those back in place. I also want to build a fountain in my front yard out of plant containers. All of that is much more than a spring project - I'll be happy to have it done by fall.

This is what I've got done so far:

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This is what I need to do:

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I have finished what's in front of the house (the blue planters are going to be the fountain):

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Mary

Mary, you've done a wonderful job on your front yard. Your hard work is paying off!

Well, planting grass seed was first and foremost on my mind early in the spring...and it still is. I have sprayed all resthe weeds in the front yard and they are slowly dieing. We had a sick calf in the back yard at the time so I had to hold off on spraying back there. I hope to get that done tomorrow. The other thing that side tracked our spraying the weeds, has been the weather. Windy and/or rainy, neither a good option for spraying. So I waited it out for a calm day, then spread bed sheets over all the plants in my various garden spaces. I have to wait for two more weeks before I can put the seed down out in front.

In the mean time, we have limbed up several trees,and even removed one, in the wind break that surrounds our yard. Then we cut a few more trees down to use for fence posts. We have a lot more of that to do. I'm watching with interest on the fencing project, wondering how many posts it takes to fix fence on this place. Yikes! I've saved a number of good branches from the western red cedars so I can make some arbors later on. The remaining tree branches have been ground up in the silage cutter to use for mulch. It's been a win win all the way around by cutting the trees. And a drastic visual improvement!

In between the big projects I've been slowly cleaning up all the beds, adding more manure around the plants and piling on more mulch where needed. One of my neighbors gave me a drip system for my garden that she was no longer planing to use. I'll have to move some of the mulch around again as I install the tubing so that it's buried under the mulch.

Yesterday I potted up about twenty five tree starts, from cuttings. I'm anxious to see if they will take root. Several of my neighbors are wanting to put more trees in their yards so hopefully this little experiment will go well. I did use rooting hormone on the starts.

We also got the patio area all cleaned up and mowed but I think the Rancher is going to change our plans a bit and instead install the patio at the east end of the house. It's going to be cooler to sit there in the afternoon but it's also an out of the way destination to go to, to sit. I'll have to let you know how that turns out in the end.

Everyone has been so busy!!

I enlisted hubby's help this long weekend. We added in a tiny potager (really just an extension on an existing bed) for veggies & herbs. Then I dug up the eyesore in the back of the yard by our shed and turned it into a nice shade garden.

Things are still pretty bare back there, but I have an order from Bluestone on its way to change that!

I still have some trenching left to do around one garden. But I've been making good progress. I'd be outside now it if wasn't sprinkling.

Also just found out that my brother will be giving us his pond. Yay! Just need to figure out where it will go and find a solar pump to power it as we have no electricity outside.

Tracy

I'm planning to add in my first shade garden around my mailbox. So, to that end, every two hours yesterday, I wrote down exactly how the sun moved across the area and what parts were shaded at any given time. Now that I've determined, that, yes, it is indeed shady (Some of it gets direct sun from noon - 1, but that's pretty much it), I have to figure out the bed size. I have an area 17' by 19' feet to play with.

After that's done and the area is edged, time to start lasagna -ing it. I've been collecting cardboard for a month and my family wants to kill me!

The seeds for the produce garden have been planted and are beginning to sprout. I've been working on a new flower garden outside of the house yard.

I put in two dozen snapdragons today, my first (ever) coreopsis and a few petunias. I was pleased to find Wave Petunias, a spreading variety.

My sod did not come back. It was a heck of a lot of effort/work to put that sod in last fall. I only have a few stripes of grass coming up. I'm really disappointed about that failure.

Lorna

I don't think I posted on the other thread - must have missed it. Anyhoo, I'm mostly collecting plants and trees for the east side garden. We did a lot of grading work earlier in the spring which required the removal of the fencing on that side. DH is building a nice new fence for a portion of this area - it will be white with lattice on the top. It's not a very large area, maybe 12 ft. deep by 40 ft. long, and is the area I see out my kitchen window. Since our home is two story this area doesn't get much sun after 2 p.m. so it's a new challenge to find things that will do well with lots of morning sun and afternoon shade. I'm enjoying the process immensely.

Planting more groundcovers is also a priority this spring. I have several varieties that do very well at keeping out the weeds so I'm looking forward to them spreading. Plus I love the living "mulch" - nice color and once it's in, it's there to stay with no renewing like bark, etc.

And I have some annuals I grow from seed every year to get planted, plus some new roses waiting for a home. Oh and a burgundy buddleia to find a home for, probably in the butterfly bed. Lots to do but I love it! : )

I haven't posted in ages because of a string of issues: a downed computer, a daughter with appendicitis in the hospital for a week and helping an aging mom.

My latest project has been to get my gravel paths covered with crushed granite and I've got half of them covered now. It looks marvelous and the golden brown color really marries with the aged brown concrete blocks that are my built up beds.

My dog Lucky is still at war with the squirrels and his daily chasing path goes through my abutilon tree which is suffering greatly. It split in two after a wind storm and I don't think it's going to survive Luckys mad dashes.

Another spring project has been to install some stackable plastic growing containers for my strawberry plants so I can use air space instead of take over my flower beds.

I've been storing some huge (4'H and W) mosaic sculptures at my moms house for years and now that she needs to move to assisted living, I need to get them down to my house. Hence, all the path work.

Happy spring everyone!

Well I am almost done with my foundation planting. I still have an area that I have no idea what I want to put there. The other project, building a new bed, that has been completed but is being used right now as a holding bed for some bushes I am giving to my son...the bed behind it, with all the rocks ARGHHHHHHHH still have not gotten to that. Once I finish getting all my plants in and mulching, I will get to that.