It’s *almost* time to start gardening! In preparation for spring gardening, I took documented the state of the yard. Click on the photos to see them in Flickr where I’ve added notes.

Here’s the driveway strip, which has been a work-in-progress for 2 years. I hope to cover the remaining crabgrass with woodchips this summer, and fill in the already woodchipped areas with peppers, eggplants, assorted herbs and sedum. There’s some mint in here which I’ll be digging up and putting into pots which I’ll later sink in the ground.

Here’s the foundation planting on one side of the house. The retaining wall is crumbling and we may be replacing it this summer. The tree is a dogwood and it’s beautiful when it’s in bloom. There are quite a few daylilies here and a little bit of sedum. I hope to fill it in this year with some violas, lavender and more sedum.

Here’s the foundation garden on the other side of the house. The tree is a crabapple that poops fruit all over our neighbor’s driveway. I’m pretty sure she hates the tree. In the back is a gorgeous korean lilac bush. There are also some hydrangeas and interesting irises in here, as well as a smattering of daffodil bulbs and balloon flowers. I’m hoping to plant more lavender, violas and snapdragons here. And sometime in the next few years we’re going to replace the crumbling front step.

This is the view from our patio in the back yard. The little area around the gas lamp (yes… it’s really gas… we never use it because it seems like such a waste) is where I’m planning to put some tomatillos, some basil and maybe some flowers. There are quite a few hostas in this area and some lily of the valley, too.

Here’s a stretch of the backyard. Inside the chicken wire are an azalea and a currant bush I wanted to make sure the rabbits didn’t eat. This area is teeming with stupid yellow coneflowers. They have taken over the entire flower bed. I’m going to remedy that this year. There are also an awful lot of iris bulbs here, perhaps too many. I’m going to plant some more flowers, probably snapdragons, in the front of this area and some hostas in the back where it’s shadier.

Here’s my teeny tiny garden, our garage and the rotting shed. I mean, potting shed. Something needs to be done about that shed… my vote is to tear it down and either build a new one or expand the garden. But that’s for another year. This year I hope to undo the squirrel damage (all the divots in the yard) and plant a garden full of tomatos, cucumbers, beans, onions, broccolli and lettuce. The biggest challenge is to protect the plants from the squirrels and chipmunks. Our neighbor feeds them peanuts, so the dumb things flock to our neighborhood in droves.

Here’s my tiny gooseberry bush, which (barely) survived its first winter. I think that only the one twig is still alive. I’m hoping to nurture it through this year. I’ll start by putting some chicken wire around it to protect it from the squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits.

This is the first flower of the year, the blue scilla that’s planted around the rotting shed.

This year’s seed starting got underway back in January with some Bilbo Baggins Violas, Fuji Dawn Violas, and Bowle’s Black Violas. Those were closely followed by some snapdragons, Alisa Craig onions and Romanesco Broccoli. Last week I planted two kinds of cucumbers, two kinds of eggplants, 4 kinds of peppers, some basil, sage and lavender. I should’ve also started some tomatoes, more herbs and more lavender by now, but I ran out of room on my little seed starting platform.

You’ll notice this is much, MUCH more crowded than last year. Part of the problem is that I expected to be able to set the violas, snapdragons, broccoli and onions outside in the coldframe before I had to begin planting the warmer season crops like herbs, peppers and tomatoes. But, thanks to last week’s snow storm and this week’s impending snow storms, I’m unable to move the cool season annuals outside for at least another week.

The other part of the problem is that I ordered way too many seeds. More seeds than I have room for on the seed starting platform, and more seeds than I have room for in my yard. These are the seeds that I ordered this year:

Outhouse Hollyhock
Fuji Dawn Viola
Double Moss Rose
Apollo Arugala
Brandywine Tomato
American Spinach
Alisa Craig Onion
Romanesco Broccoli
Gourd Mixture
Birdhouse Gourd
Bronze Arrowhead Lettuce
St. Valery Carrot
Empress Bean
Ideal Market Bean
Snow’s Fancy Pickling Cucumber
Parade Cucumber
Lao Purple Stripe Eggplant
Rosa Bianca Eggplant
Lacy frills lavender
Kohlrabi
Lavender Hidcote Blue
Lavender Rosea
Lavender Lady
Lavender English
Lacy frills lavender
Snapdragon Rocket White
Viola Bilbo Baggins
Luffah gourd

These are the seeds that I have leftover from last year:

Minnesota Midget Melon
Black beauty zucchini
Long Island cheese pumpkin
Rio Grande tomato
Beam’s yellow pear tomato
Roma tomato
Cherry roma tomato
King of the north pepper
Peas
Aurora pepper
Nasturtium
Grandpa Ott’s morning glory
Moonflower

My gardening goals for this year are:

1. Find space in the yard for all the seeds I started. This shouldn’t be a problem for the flowers and herbs, but the veggies might be a challenge.
2. Get the coneflower population under control.
3. Get the mint plants under control.
4. Finish eradicating the crabgrass in the drive way strip.
5. Start a new, small flower bed where the sidewalk steps and driveway meet. Finished May 2007!
6. Grow enough beans to pickle.
7. Grow enough tomatoes to make & can salsa.
8. Grow enough tomatillos to make & can salsa.
9. Grow enough lavender to make peach lavender jam.
10. Grow enough cucumbers to make pickles for us and at least 2 other households.
11. Successfully grow and dry at least one kind of gourd: luffah, birdhouse or decorative
12. Maintain a decent looking lawn without chemicals or watering more than 1 time per week.