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.

This gardening season isn’t even finished yet, and I’m already planning next year’s garden. Here’s the list of seeds I just ordered from park seed:

1875 Qty 1 Sedum Hardy Blend Ships now 0.95
2599 Qty 1 Snapdragon Rocket Whit Ships now 2.50
4731 Qty 1 Viola Bilbo Baggins Ships now 2.75
0900 Qty 1 Gourd Luffa Ships now 2.25
1140 Qty 1 Lavender Hidcote Blue Ships now 1.85
1118 Qty 1 Lavender Rosea Ships now 4.15
1136 Qty 1 Lavender Lady Ships now 2.05
1138 Qty 1 Lavender English Ships now 1.85
2832 Qty 1 Baby Toes Cactus Ships now 0.75

I’m planning to make a lavender garden in my front yard, although the exact site is TBD. I’m going to intersperse some black violas and white snapdragons with the lavender. At least that’s the plan. Another plan is to dig up the mint I planted this year and put it in pots before it takes over the entire front yard. (I know mint is classified as invasive, but so is catnip and lemon balm, and I’ve never had any problem with them. The mint, however, really IS invasive.)

Here are the things Iwould like to order from seedsavers (obviously I have some narrowing-down to do):

Veggies

• gourd mixture *
• birdhouse gourd *
• borettana yellow onion
• apolla arugala
• amish dear tongue lettuce
• bronze arrowhead lettuce
• brittish wonder pea *
• america spinach
• round mauve eggplant
• Listada de Gandia Eggplant *
• Parade Cucumber *
• Snow’s fancy pickling cucumber *
• Double Yield Cucumber *
• Scarlet Nantes Carrot
• St. Valery Carrot
• Purple Podded Pole Bean *
• empress bean
• burpee stringless bean
• ideal market bean *
• climbing french bean *
• Royalty Purple Pod Bean
• black valentine bean
• golden midget watermelon *
• moon and stars watermelon *
• brandywine tomato
• lemon drop pepper

Herbs

• lamb’s ear
• stevia

Flowers

• sensation mixture cosmos
• california poppy
• double moss roses
• immortelle
• butterflyweed
• music box sunflower
• red marietta marigold
• tigers eye marigold
• starfire signet marigold
• music box sunflower
• fuji dawn viola
• aztec sunflower

Start indoors
Direct seed
* climbing

Here are the things I’d like to order from burpee:

• asarina (snap dragon vine)
• lacy frills lavender
• kohlrabi

Although this year’s garden is growing pretty well, next year’s could definitely be better. I planted too many tomato plants too close together, so it’s nearly impossible to weed and/or harvest. The grapes are covered in rust, the zucchini has powdery mildew and the tomatillos are taking over our yard. The lawn alternates dead patches with patches of dandelion, creeping charlie and crabgrass. In an effort to do better next year, I think I’m going to draw up a garden plan using this companion planting chart and look into some organic gardening products. We definitely need some sort of lawn fertilizer and/or herbicide.

I found this trellis that could be used to grow melons, cantaloupe, zucchine and cucumbers. This year my zucchini and cantaloupe are growing on the ground, where they’re getting eaten by chipmunks :/ This looks like a good solution for next year.

I picked the first batch of beams’ yellow pear tomatos from the garden today, and the second batch of roma cherry tomatos. The cherry tomatos are excellent, but the yellow pear tomatos are almost flavorless. I have quite a few regular roma tomatos that are turning pink. I also planted a fall crop of lettuce, salad greens and radishes.

This weekend I canned some peach lavender jam, made with lavender I harvested from my yard. The jam turned out pretty well and all of the lids sealed correctly. My lavender plants only produced 2 Tbsp of lavender flowers – hopefully next year I’ll get a bigger crop.

I’ve already ordered some bulbs for fall. From burpee.com, I ordered:

3 allium ‘gladiator’ bulbs
12 feather hyacinths
25 mixed muscari bulbs

I’ve also harvested a meager crop of peas, most of which were too dry to eat, and one bunch of leaf lettuce that managed to survive first being mowed down by rabbits and then being transplanted inside the rabbit-proof chickenwire fence. I think I’ve harvested enough lavender to make peach-lavender jam out of. In July I harvested more garlic than we will eat in a year, some of which I’m going to save for seed and plant in the fall. I have some really nice morning glories growing inside the rabbit-proof fence which are starting to become entwined in the tomato plants. The tomato plants are planted too close together, which makes it impossible to weed and will probably make it hard to harvest, also. This week the melons that I planted are starting to grow teenie melons, but I think they’ll all be eaten by the chipmunks. The tomatillos are thriving and will probably bear a lot of fruit. The raspberries are starting to wilt in the heat and won’t bear fruit this year. The strawberries are sending out runners like crazy and desperately need to be weeded.

Lessons I’ve learned:

1. Weed early and often
2. Put morning glories inside chicken wire to prevent them from being eaten
3. Chipmunks can squeeze through chicken wire
4. Water rhododendrons often
5. Do not plant tomato plants close together
6. Lettuce, peas and carrots need to go inside chicken wire
7. Plant more cilantro, stagger plantings
8. Get a heat mat for pepper seedlings to speed germination
9. Start violas and pansies earlier
10. Morning glory, calendula and nasturtium can be started from seed outside after last frost
11. Hostas and day lilies need to be divided

Here’s a picture of my coldframe being put to good use. Right now I have some spanish lace lavender, peppermint, morning glories, strawberries, nasturtiums and calendulas in there. Soon I’ll be adding more strawberries and herbs.

Here you can see the brick edging that we so painstakingly laid out. It’s doing a nice job (so far) of keeping the grass out of the flower beds.

And here’s our azalea in bloom! I hope that the flowers last a long time, or at least until their neighboring climbing roses and hydrangeas start to bloom.

It’s finally spring time! Here’s a blackberry bush (ok, it’s just a twig so far) that I got at a local garden center:

Here is one of our many azaleas that’s getting ready to bloom!

Here’s the first peony to start growing:

And here’s our rhubarb. It’s already starting to sprawl!