Don't feel bad, sometimes it takes me years to decide. Better than doing something on compulsion and regretting it later.
Aren't you glad you didn't lay all your patio pavers and then decide it wasn't the best place?

My biggest challenge is coming up with the money to put all my ideas into motion!

Money. Ha! If I didn't work for Lowe's, I'd never be able to do all the things I'm doing. Clearance plants, store use patio stones (121 sq ft for $10, yeah!), discounts on cabinets, discounts on plants, cheap delivery fees, etc and so forth. If money were no object, I'd still have to decide how to spend it.

For me it's patience. I want it all NOW! However, gardening is proving to be a good exercise for me that way. I planted wisteria knowing it might not bloom for 7-10 years. I only groaned a little yesterday when I was planting a peony root division whose directions said it might take 2 years to bloom.

Impulse buying is another challenge for me. I can't pass up plants I see on clearance. My boyfriend says I need to go to "PA" (plants anonymous). LOL. I need to rein it it. My impulse shopping is turning what was a carefully planned garden into messy chaos.

Now...off to plant the 300 bulbs I couldn't resist....

Lisa

Aww lisa i am the same way! I have to hide plants, or hurry up and plant them before DH notices, and act like theyve been there all along!
My biggest problem is completely finishing any project. I always have a few going on, and ill come up witha new one and have to start it or else, so my yard is a mess! I know itll look wonderful soon enough...

... for me is passing up a bargain priced plant that I really want, even though I don't have a good place for it.

I have all of the above problems!

Tom, I think I would hold out for the potager if that is the best sunny spot or the only sunny spot.

I have seen lots of patios with paths leading to them so they could sit in a shady spot. I think that would be a very nice idea.

My hardest thing, and I am getting much better at, is refraining from buying more plants that I will eventually have to find a place for and then plant them! I finally know my limitations. I didn't buy bulbs this year for that very reason.

My main project is still the curving shrub/tree/perennial border in the middle of the front yard so I am just trying to concentrate on that.

For me it's time. It's rather comical that my moniker is thyme2dig when I have so little of it for the garden! I have a son w/a rare genetic syndrome so my DH and I spend lots of time doing therapy with him, etc. BUT, when we do get out in the garden we go like gangbusters! It's a balancing act but I think we're doing OK because the garden and our son are both flourishing!!

I'm lucky that my DH never says anything about how much money I spend. Sometimes I myself choke when I look back over a gardening season and think about all the money I spent on plants/shrubs/trees. I guess it's a darn good think I live in NH and the season is fairly short!! I'd really be broke! LOL!!

Patience -- my garden is 4 years old (well, the largest areas are younger) and I keep moving things around... maybe I just keep changing my mind.

Seeds -- I'm addicted to ordering seeds. Those of you who got me hooked are on this forum and you know who you are! :-)

Ripping out annuals in the fall - It just about killed me to have to pull perfectly good zinnias this week in order to make room for my fall projects. I cut some for vases, too. Still, it hurt. I have a lot more left for the Monarchs.

Cameron

Oh, I have all of the above, but sticking to a budget is my worst frailty. Also, I had trouble stopping the renovation of the back border this Fall. I now have to wait till Spring. I have a bunch of iris' to heel into the veg garden, when I get to cleaning it out tomorrow!! Oh, budgeting time!!! lol.

Nancy.

Keeping the pups from digging up my garden is my challenge. They see me dig and bury something and come right up behind me and dig it back up. Good thing they are cute. I need to downsize their outdoor space and increase mine...

Pups are it for me, too-same scenario-trampling, digging, lying on, running through,etc. Yesterday, we dicovered that one of them had completely dug out the dirt under the top stone step going down into the lower part of the yard. A bit of concrete seems to be holding it in place, so I am going out there today to shovel dirt back under it before it collapses. Which brings me to the one other challenge-the push-back from the muscles and joints that no longer enjoy all the bending, digging, etc. Aspirin works for that, though. Haven't found anything that really works for Annabelle and Clouseau yet! Plan to try collecting pinecones and putting them EVERYWHERE to see if that slows them down a bit. May also try to put up some of that orange netting type fencing for a while to train them to certain areas and running paths. We'll see.

I certainly struggle with the time issue - it would be difficult for anyone to work full time and also take care of as much flower garden as I have. Especially as I get older and slower.

And there is certainly the money thing - "plant in groups of three, five, or seven"??? OBVIOUSLY the advice of those selling plants or those who have WAY more money than I do. But wintersowing has really helped in this regard. I've finally found a way to grow from seeds (still can't do it in place in the garden) and that is much less expensive than buying plants.

The worst, though, is the discouragement that comes in mid summer. The garden begins to look ratty. That shouldn't come as a shock when temperatures are in the low 100's and it only gets down to the upper 80's at night. But it makes it really, really difficult for me to spend much time weeding, deadheading, trimming, etc. (Heat stroke is VERY REAL in SC, you know.) The garden gradually looks even worse due to lack of attention. And I ride that spiral into depression.

I guess I could really use psychiatric help but then there would be nothing left to spend on plants and seeds!

Note to Tom: Could you look at your "indecision" as enjoying a work in progress? I'd get even more discouraged if I thought my garden would be finished one of these days with nothing left to do. Part of the fun is seeing it refined and changing.

"I guess I could really use psychiatric help..."

OMG that's funny, 'cause I know the spirit in which you intended it lindakimy, ROFLMAO!!

This indecision's bugging me too, I'm always moving plants. The funny thing is I can plan a garden for someone else but somehow think the laws of space and time don't apply to MY garden, LOL.

Prairiegirlz5, I'm glad you had a good laugh...but I'm actually serious. Your post seems filled with good will and humor and I appreciate that so I hope you won't think I'm being critical.

I actually do feel profoundly depressed by my garden and my whole life when things get so icky late in summer. My garden is hope to me in an otherwise hopeless situation - you really can't garden without hope. Why would you plant if you couldn't imagine growth? When I see the mess that the extreme heat makes of my best laid plans and I can't fix it because of my limitations, I despair.

Thank goodness, spring usually brings a new hope. Things are less oppressive and new growth lets one believe again that it is reasonable to try.

What I need to do is find a way to modify my garden to minimize the late summer disaster (and a lot of the work I can't get to anyway) so that it will be joyful rather than stressful.

Token, well if I had it to do over I wouldn't build a patio at all. We spent a huge amount of money and time putting it in ourselves but it has heaved in a couple of spots and sunk in a few places, gets weeds between the stones, and it's too hot most of the time to use it. We put it in a sunny location because I wanted to have a rose garden around it, and now I wish my plan hadn't been so grandiose. If I told DH I wanted to tear it out and put a vegetable garden there I think he'd have a stroke. The roses look nice in Spring and I always have enough to cut and bring in for arrangements, but the bugs and humid Texas heat ravages them for most of the year. I make snap decisions and then just have to live with what I've done. And the regrets. Listen to that little voice in your head that says, "Wait."

Cheryl

I think you're right about the patio area you cleared being made, instead, into the potager if that area gets a lot of sun. You don't want full sun on your patio, do you? Better to take a short stroll from your house to your patio in a tucked-away, comfy, shady spot than to step out of your door directly onto a closely-convenient but uncomfortably hot and sunny patio. You could design an intriguing little pathway where your patio was just around a curve, like coming onto a clearing in a forest.

Lindakimy, I feel your pain and despair. You've accuratley mirrored my state of mind every single August as far as I can remember! Just as everything is at its peak and nearing perfection, the awful heat comes and ravages every beautiful thing in my garden while it steals my energy, preventing me from doing anything about it. I hate August! So chin up! You aren't alone. It's a temporary curse that tries to kill hope but never succeeds.

Next year I'm going to find a way to provide shade protection to my most favorite small garden, so at least I'll have that to enjoy and hopefully save. I know the solution is to plant native, drought- and heat-tolerant plants, but that's kind of limiting, and I love more interesting (and challenging) things in my garden.

I have trouble with plants. It always upsets me when I go to the nursery and see a whole bunch of things I would like to try but can't because of limited space availability. Then I go home and just happen to look up the plant I wanted. Then I get sad because it is so pretty and I can't have it. :-( Then I go and make another bed/rip out ugly things and go ahead and buy it anyway ;-D

I find one of the most challenging things for me is watering. It isn't hard to water, but doing it daily kind of wears a person out.
CMK

The hardest thing for me to accept when gardening must come to an end for the season. I want the season to go on forever.