Hoping to get more stuff into the ground and out of pots! Then put everything on a water timer . Then I will have more time to take short trips and go fishing instead of watering!

Low maintenance? Did someone say low maintenance?? That's my WHOLE GOAL for 2009. I am redoing all of my beds with low maintenance, tough, hardy plants, with lower water requirements. I want to spend more time relaxing outside and enjoying watching the butterflies and birds in the garden, and less time weeding, weeding, weeding. And less time replacing worn out plants with new stuff that only lasts a year. I'm planting with the future in mind. Things that will look great for years to come.

And if it isn't freeze hardy, it's not likely to find a place in my new beds. I'm not going to spend hours lugging plants in and out any more, or trying to cover up tender stuff, or stringing up lights to keep things warm. If I get a small greenhouse someday, I might grow some tender stuff in containers, but other than that...if it freezes, it freezes. And it won't be replaced by the same thing.

Also on my agenda for this year is a pond. I think I'm going to go the easy route and get a large container (probably a round horse trough) and set it up in the center of the yard with some plants around it. If we keep waiting until we have the time and money to put in the waterfall and stream of our dreams, we'll die of old age without ever being able to have goldfish again.

Lots of other things are floating around in my mind, but my main plans for 2009 are changing to an easier to care for garden and getting some sort of pond installed.

Looking forward to seeing what others are planning.

Marcia

I got a lot done in 2008: moving to a new (to us) house, getting plants that came with us into the ground, making new beds.

So...for 2009 I plan to do less :-) but here are some things on the wish list:

-make some arches for climbing roses and passionflowers. Saw some great examples on the Rose Forum using conduit pounded into the ground and then rebar into the conduit, bent from one conduit to the other forming an arch. It sounds so easy, lol.

-learn how to graft and air layer. (find a grafting class)

-learn how to fish (and plant some fishheads in the garden).

Denise

Let's see my goals for '09:
-Plant more edibles.
-Play with concrete,hypertufa.(create some art for the garden)
-Create a "Stonehenge" climbing rose garden. A circle with
two entrance on opposite side with a bench or two in the middle and climbing roses all around. A working fountain
in the very center.
-Then if any time left I'll sit and rest.LOL
Felix

But wait. I haven't finished 2008's list!

To it, I'll add: plant more food and stop killing the food I've planted. Oh, and swear off seed catalogs and lie in the hammock more. Wonder where I put the hammock? Guess I need to put hang the hammock on the list too.

Susannah

I'm with Denise sort of...I plan to SPEND less! No big projects! I don't mind working in the yard but I've gotta stop spending.
In OH-8 I re-landscaped the front yard, put up a new fence, did the flagstone path and had the shade house build.
In oh! 9 I want to rig some roll up plastic for the shade house and get a heater. I'd like that to be a fall project unless I get really fed up with the weather in the next 2 months!

There are things in pots that need to be planted...
But mostly there are bills to be paid!
Unfortunately there is that new orchid addiction thing!

I love red in the garden also especially RED Zinnias. I started a garden with all pastels and was I ever BORED. Now I have lots of red and I intend on keeping it.Bflies love it! (Red knockouts,red turks cap,firespike, etc)
More Mulching
more red zinnias
More trimming and cutting back
more red zinnias
More Mosaic (Working on grand kid gardenstones)
more red zinnias
More veggies and fruits
more red zinnias
More Flowering Bushes and less annual flowers,except for red zinnias. Got to have em!

For me, the concept of "less IS more" WILL be applied to the veggie garden (visualizing Corrie snickering). I have made only THIRTEEN tomato cages and will stick to my resolution NOT to grow thirty-five mater plants ever again! In fact, I've only started thirty four seedlings for the New Year, instead of my usual seventy, and those not dispatched or planted in my garden will summarily be dismissed...don't ask ;-)

Tom

Oh yeah! Hypertufa! That was on my list last year and I never seemed to get to it. I've been saving oddly shaped plastic molds, like you get electronic devices packaged in, to make my tiny alien village. Maybe we need a weekend hypertufa gathering... but it would have to be somewhere with enough room so that we could leave our projects sit for 7-14 days for curing.

Just a few days ago I got rid of my worst rose bush. I jerked it up and trucked it back to the burn barrel. I did not go into a depression. The sun continued to rise every day. And after these several days have passed, I have come to realize that I am GLAD that rose is gone.

So, for starters, in 09 I plan to cull quite a few more. I finally have enough roses so that I can really see how various ones preform. And the non performers' days are numbered along with those on the wrong root stock and any disease ridden ones.

I will still be ordering new ones, probably 12-16 this year.

I have dragged the large, potted hybrid teas out to the back where I only have to look at them when I want to cut a rose or two. They, however, have a great view of the burn barrel. Lol...

"They, however, have a great view of the burn barrel."

Too funny!!! "Perform or you are OUT-a-here!"

Great thread, everybody! Felix, I LOVE the idea of "Rosehenge!" Can't wait to see how you do it. And GP, I think having a visible threat near to poor performers is a stellar idea. I've always believed a stern warning prompts new growth. You go, girl!!

Everybody, good plans for 2009. Let's hear more!

Marcia

For 2009 I plan to experiment a lot in my garden ( Thanks to Tom, Trudi, Cindee, Susannah, other sources from another countries. Lisa and her great knowledge of fruit trees, Christine and her advice and I didn't forget you Felix.

I will post pictures and references including recipes for those who are interested about the crops that I will be raising.

Good luck to you all in your new garden projects.

Willy

I will continue my 2008 projects...it's only my second year at the house and really gardening too, so we still have a long way to go...I will plant more veggies of each kind and add more plants to the beds we started last spring...
I will bring my tools and dig up some natives out at my friends' property like I have been meaning to do for the last six months...
I will add only one more rain barrel lol
Lisa B

Hi
Since my large aquarium started leaking have been racking my brain trying to decide what to do with it Can't be fixed and remembering the weight of the monster I know it;s never going to moved again.lol. Thinking maybe a terrarium
for some of those deep jungle terrestrials. Maybe the moss garden I've been itching to try but with much more exotic varieties.
All I have to do is to come up with a way to keep the rain out ,temps down and learn to plant while standing on my head lol. Since the tank is 32 inches deep on an 18 inch stand it's tough to reach the bottom. I'm thinking raised bottom with waterfall and mabe even mist forest as a theme. lol One more problem how do I keep the entire garden under glass free of water spots lol??
I'm not even sure it's possible to keep a "terrarium"outdoors in this climate. lol. Maybe it can be a veggie steamer?? gary

My main goal is to select drought tolerant plants and, most importantly, PLANT THEM EARLY so they have time to establish a robust root system before the onslaught of summer heat.

For ideas, I've looked around my own garden, the community where I live, this Forum, and the test results of the trial gardens at the U of F (Gainesville) to find plants that have performed well in the summer heat.

This is the year I'm gonna finally spend more time on the "hardscape" and quit just mounding up planting beds and flinging pots around the yard! It's amazing how fast too many seed packets and too little willpower can turn one small front yard into a redneck jungle! :)
I'm gonna finally bite the bullet and spend my last dollar on bricks and wood, and make proper, pretty, orderly beds: Now I just have to hit the lotto and find a hammer that comes with an instruction manual!

What I do depends on how much money I have to "do with". I will definitely be weeding, weeding, weeding. Preparing the raised bed for a fall garden (probably won't be ready before then). There is lots of maintenance (pruning and fertilizing) that needs to be done on this yard, as it was abandoned for about a year.

Aside from that, money allowing, I would like to landscape the front bed. There is already aboricola and draecaena (sp?). I want to add perhaps some Ti plants and Crown of Thorns. I would like to extend the bed out to the side of the driveway, and xeriscape it all.

I haven't decided on the backyard yet. There are lots of beds awaiting planting, and I haven't figured out yet what to plant. I have my hands full just with the weeding and pruning.

Heather