The list

[Dixana]

Since I can't keep track of a piece of paper to save my life I'm using this thread as a reminder/list of what I want in the garden this year. Seeing as I'm moving the garden AGAIN so its in my yard and out of the "tractor zone" I need an idea of how big it needs to be. Feel free to chime in with opinions, suggestions, or something I may have forgotten....


Lettuce-buttercrunch & red sails?
Swiss Chard
Onion
Scallions
Leek-will it grow here?
Fennel-will it grow here?
Peppers of course! More red this year
Toms-narrow down list but Amazon chocolate from davinci is a keeper and we NEED pineapple seeds
Cucumers-lemon is a keeper- look into trellis by door-grow with morning glory or clematis?
Peas - snap and shell
Beans-purple were rockin !
Carrots - what the heck kind did we plant again? Better remember they were perfect and sweet
Brussel sprouts-attempt again? Look for planting suggestions
Broccoli - more this year....lots more
Cauliflower -less this year
melons? Only if we can find one that will produce viable fruit in our season ....
Beets-attempt 1123....

Herbs:
Parsley - flat leaf
Basil- lemon and ?
Thyme
Sage
Saffron - looking into that......

Note to self - the tantrum cleaning has GOT to stop, where the heck did you put those stupid seed catalogs????????

[Dixana]

Chives - regular and garlic lots since Dale keeps stealing them for potato salad....

[cynthia_h]

--Put seed catalogues in the kitchen, next to cookbooks.

--Use colored paper for lists! Kiddie construction paper from Dollar and the like stores is just as valid as "grown-up" colored photocopy paper.

--A kitchen timer that rings when the time is up is good for cleaning the house. When the 10 minutes (15 minutes on a good morning/afternoon) is up, that session is DONE. But during the tick tick tick of the timer, NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS but the cleaning. While the cleaning looks at you (as you're tending the baby, making food, doing laundry, or arranging errands), look back at it and say, "You'll get your 10 minutes this morning!" or "You'll get your 10 minutes this afternoon!" And then do it every day. Correct: Not everything will get done. So...Do the most important (to you) things first, once you set the timer.

Cynthia H.
(yep, prof. organizer in one of my former lifetimes)

[digitS']

Cynthia is certainly organized!

And, she's the person who has the sensible rule of starting each meal with a piece of fruit and a glass of water.

My seed catalogs are stacked on a low table near the front door . . . which is a little embarrassing. However, visitors are sometimes happy to pick up a catalog on their way into the house . I'd just better not see them try to get out of the house with one!

Steve

[Dixana]

Consider using old garden for plant and forget it stuff like potatoes. Lots of potatoes .... reds yukons and regular.

Root veggies and squashes ...... zucchini and summer squash too.
PUMPKINS for Halloween and baking....can you home can pumpkin? I sure as heck hope so it's getting pricey!

Rosemary?
Lavender.
Soy beans - edamame YUM!
Eggplant - 2 planted a few weeks apart is enough or they to to waste

What happens I'd you plant asparagus where the wild stuff grows?

Research garlic for 2013....

Cilantro!!!!!!

Quinnoa......we'll see...

Berry beds? Pricey to lose if we move.....

Crud, I wonder what Dan would say if I turned the whole yard into garden...

[Dixana]

Cynthia you are MORE than welcome to come organize my.house! It is literally like trying to stuff 50 lbs of potatoes in 25 lb bag. I don't have room in my kitchen fir my cookbooks much less my catalogs. I am in dire need of another pantry and about 3 more shelving units....
If I only cleaned my house 20 minutes a day ..... lets just say I currently clean over an hour everyday and my house is usually still trashed. Oy.

On another note I found the catalogs ...stuffed in a box in the porch. When I get angry of manic I clean like a total loon....stuff has a tendency to disappear.

I need w list of what can handle more heat /sun vs more shade

[cynthia_h]

Cynthia you are MORE than welcome to come organize my.house! ...
If I only cleaned my house 20 minutes a day ..... lets just say I currently clean over an hour everyday and my house is usually still trashed. Oy.

On another note I found the catalogs ...stuffed in a box in the porch. ...

Dear Dixana,

1) My own house is an interesting situation: I married a member of a pack-ratting (oops! professional terminology = excessive abundance) family. I, OTOH, until six years into this marriage, purged my own possessions annually, on Labor Day weekend.

2) Give yourself a BIG BREAK, really! You just --moved, --had a baby. You still --have a baby, --have a husband, --have stuff all over the house. Keep at it, two sessions of whatever length you can manage w/o interruption per day. Sure, odd tasks can be fitted in wherever, but the "uninterrupted" aspect makes a difference in what you can tackle.

3) Glad you found the catalogues! Even when doing "adrenaline-inspired" cleaning, put like things with other like things, e.g., seed catalogues with the seeds and gardening tools, or at least the box(es) where you think they're still packed!

Cynthia

[Dixana]

We're all unpacked .....or as unpacked as we're going to be. Our house is an old farm house .....when I say old I mean like before lights and closets were invented.
I have next to no storage space. There's no closets in the kids bedrooms, no closet or cupboard in the bathroom, not even enough cabinet space for my massive collection of kitchen stuff (I'm a baking addict and have the hips and belly to prove it)
Quite frankly I hate this house but our only neighbors are related and our landlord is pretty cool so......
My problems are being a packrat and not having anywhere to put anything.
I need one of those professional organizers to come to my house and design a bunch of solutions for me!

Anyway, I think my princess finally cashed out and I have 5 whole hours to sleep before my lil dude has to get up for school.

Tomorrow I'll post pics of the property and maybe someone can help me with the dog issue.......night all!

[rainbowgardener]

I have one of those old houses with little closet space. The master bedroom was remodeled with a big walk in closet and a new bathroom, but the rest of the house is as it was. Solutions:

I put a floor down in my attic which had only rafters. Now it is nice dry storage for anything that can tolerate extremes of heat and cold, which includes off-season clothes as well as all the Christmas/ Halloween, etc stuff.

Check used furniture stores for wardrobes. They didn't have closets in the old days because they put their clothes in wardrobes (free standing closets). You can still find them used pretty cheap. They usually have room for hanging things as well as some drawer storage. There are modern versions too, but the modern versions look like they are for function only and designed to be stashed in a basement (ugly!). The old ones were made like furniture.

Keep working on paring the collection down!! We all own too much stuff and everything you own, owns you!

And be careful in your enthusiasm, not to make a garden that is overwhelming. You will have a toddler while you are doing the garden next year! Smaller is better. Having a little garden that you can give lots of attention to will be a lot more enjoyable than having a huge garden that gets away from you and gets all weedy... Best Wishes!

[Dixana]

The tractor only travels through the garden in winter but it makes fencing the garden impossible.
Unfortunately my flower beds don't get enough sun for herbs....well one might. More on that when the sun comes up and I show you all the lay of the land.

[gixxerific]

Yes pics would be nice. Glad to see you settled in somehwat not glad to see you don't like the house. But you will get used to it. I see a large barn/greenhouse in your future for storage and gardening.

I just might have some pineapple tomato seeds, let me look, Anything else you would like? PM me.

[Dixana]

OK...pictures are taking longer than expected. I may have broken my phone a whole week after I got it and it's possible that I'm using a loaner phone that's not very user friendly



Figure out space needed from what I wanna plant so I can figure out how much fencing I need.

Pumpkins.....best for baking and best for Halloween fun!

I need straw!

[Dixana]

North side from road

North side garden bed. Gets only a couple hours of morning sun and a few hours of evening sun. I think mu lettuces and herbs will do well there though. Enough sun to thrive but shade to help prevent bolting. This bed had been obviously untouched for a long time so it's going to be some serious work this spring.
Thoughts?




South side of the house. I'm planning on building a raised bed where the siding is. I'm going to put up a white trellis and grow morning glories on it along with cukes. Below them crocus and...?



East side of house from road. Main garden will go here somewhere here. My issue is we run the sleds through this part of the yard and I need to fence it in due to dogs and children.
Soon as the snow flies we'll know where it'll go for sure. This area gets sun from sunrise until late afternoon /early evening.


East side of house garden bed this one is closest to the south end. It gets virtually no sun yet somehow the hideous lilies planted there continue to grow. Evidently the couple hours of morning sun is enough to support life, the rest of the day the houses block the light. The lilies will be coming out and replaced with something else.any ideas on how to landscape this bed are welcome!


East side garden bed closest to north end of house. This side gets a little more light. Again any planting ideas welcome!

I have a pic from west side but nothing will really grow there as buildings trees and the propane tank blocks it all.I want to put chickens there but there's a dog issue...that'll be a different thread.

[rainbowgardener]

My first thought isn't about plants. But you have a big house surrounded by acres of empty lawn and these little teeny garden beds jammed right up against it. Scale is all wrong. Nothing you plant in those beds is going to look like landscaping.

I would dramatically enlarge all the beds, then plant them with perennials, bulbs and shrubs that will be minimal care, so that you aren't also dramatically enlarging your work load. Then I would put some island tree/shrubbery/flower beds and your veggie beds out away from the house in some of all that empty space.

I understand with buying shrubs/plants etc, that is likely a several year plan for development, but it helps to have a plan.

Read Noah's Garden and Planting Noah's Garden by Sara Stein. You will get a whole new inspiration about what to do with all that property you are blessed with!

[Dixana]

Unfortunately there's several problems with adding mass garden beds to the yard. The first is this property doesn't belong to us. We rent this house I would NEVER buy this house it is terrible and needs tons of work.
The second issue is the stupid dogs. My sil lives right next door. They have four dogs. There's also homeless dog who belongs to a guy up the road but who has decided she would rather live here. If she wasn't so cute I'd shoot her. She digs, chases the cats, chews up the kids stuff just...ugh. what's worse is she adores me despite how ruthlessly mean I am to her and has decided I'm her pack leader so she's up my butt outside no matter what I do. The next door dogs are out 15 hours s day and go wherever they want. They regularly use our yard as a toilet and Roxy has dug out my front rock wall several times. Trust me when I say there's no way in heck to keep them out of my yard.
Then there's the kids. Amanda has 5 we have 2 plus my step daughter on weekends. They aren't too bad about the gardens but do like to pull flowers ......
The last problem is the toys. We run snowmobiles in winter and a slew of other stuff in summer.
I'm not going to pour my time and money into the yard just yo have it all ruined

[Dixana]

My main garden will be fenced in with cattle panel so that solves most issues it just needs to be out of the way of the sled trail. Dan gave me permission to put the garden in the yard but I don't think he'd be up for the whole yard LOL.
The beds around the house are already there so I'm going to use them! I didn't exactly ask if I could build the bed on the south side but I'll take my chances getting yelled at once it's done.

No idea how I'll keep the dogs out of the rock wall beds but we'll see.

As for the baby, I was 9 months pregnant last july amd still weeding in a 110° heat index while watching /chasing my naughty 3 ye old. I'm not one to let things stand in my way!

[Susan W]

I have been following this and not sure when and where to pipe in!
Dixana, glad you set stage of circumstances (rental, dogs, kiddos etc) and being able to have a fenced garden.
Around the house, would be nice to have a few pretties. Can you go with some zinnias or other easy annuals just for pretties? You know your area/climate far better than me in the Mid-south, so look at some good ones there. Marigolds, zinnias come to mind.

Can you do a couple of large containers for herbs as suggested. These could be old wash tubs, barrels, water troughs---anything, with drainage. Large is good for you to winter, and have less watering fuss in summer. I am thinking this could keep some things up from doggies playtime.

Most important, keep things in scale for your energy, time and budget.

We still want pics of the kiddos!

[Dixana]

Researching perennials that grow well in my zone and from seed is not SS easy as I thought it would be.
mom's going yo give me some of her hostas but I don't know if I want to wait til next fall....
Need enough seeds to put marigolds around the mailbox, main garden, intermixed in the beds........4 trays maybe 5?
Possible to hollow out the tree stumps and plant flowers in them? That would be a cool idea.

Try and find posts and cattle panel free. Craigslist, freecycle, where else?

[Dixana]

Official herb list:
Chives
Garlic chives
Cilantro
Dill
Genovese Basil
Lemon Basil
Parsley (flat leaf)
Sage
Thyme
Rosemary
Lavender

Now I need to make a list of the average heights of each one and start designing a round garden .....or maybe oval? Fennel in the center herbs and flowers in descending height around it....what perennials would grow well with herbs and bring some beautiful color.
I'm so excited about this idea!

[cynthia_h]

Try and find posts and cattle panel free. Craigslist, freecycle, where else?

Farm equipment auctions. Sometimes (I have read; this is not personal experience) there are "lots" that have a very nominal bid amount, maybe $1 or even as much as $5.

Cynthia

[Dixana]

BRILLIANT! There has to be tons of farm auctions around here! And I'm going to hit up Dan (our landlord) he has multiple farms and might have some old stuff somewhere.
Also, big plastic kiddie pool. Easy grass killer!

[Dixana]

Links nursery- purchase herb plants we aren't starting from seed.

Toms, carrots, peas, beans and peppers from seed for sure.
Onion starts from connie's neighbor.
Fennel starts?

Mushroom compost.