Early

After a couple weeks with temperatures consistently higher than normal (60's and 70's), lots of plants are starting to grow. This is about two weeks ahead of last year.

Daffodils

Tulips

Tulips

And more tulips

Chives

All of these photos were taken yesterday when it was about 72 degrees. Now, it's 36 and we have a winter weather advisory for tomorrow morning.

Something different

My backyard is very sloped. When I sit on the deck and look out, I look into my neighbor's trees, not onto the yard or garden. The slope makes mowing very difficult, and my plan has always been to plant things on the slopes that won't need mowing. With the winter onslaught of catalogs, and a resulting mix of optimism and lack of self control, it turns out that this is the year I'll be starting that project.

My starting point will be this corner:

For a little perspective, that is the northeast corner of our lot. Standing in the corner, looking back at the house, looks like this:

In addition to the slope, there are trees both to the north and to the east, so the area is shady.

I'd started thinking about plants for this area last year, so when Prairie Nursery had a free shipping special a few weeks ago, I couldn't resist. I ordered 4 Sweet Joe Pye Weed, 5 Wild Geranium, 5 Maidenhair Fern, and 4 Bishop's Cap. Last weekend I spent some time with a tape measure, graph paper, and colored pencils, figuring out which plants will go where.

I was so proud of my work, that it took a few days for me to realize the area is nowhere near ready for new plants. About 60% of my yard is creeping Charlie, and this corner is no exception. The plants will be arriving in 3" pots; they won't be big enough to win a fight with Charlie.

So, this is plan A:

I laid a tarp over the area, in the hopes that the tarp would smother everything underneath it. The plants won't arrive for about two months, so the tarp has plenty of time to do its job. Fingers crossed; I don't really have a plan B.

Slowly

After my last post, I got inspired enough to start planning the garden and order some seeds. That's all the further I got, however, up until a few days ago. Then, I finally made myself sit down and start determining dates for everything, when to start seeds, when to plant outside, etc.

That exercise got me motivated enough that I've spent several hours today fiddling with my online garden planner. I realized that some of the measurements I'd used in my planner last year weren't right, so I re-measured several areas of the backyard. I now have one plan that covers the raised beds, one that covers what I call the west wall, and one that covers both areas together, which is almost 3/4 of the yard.

My challenges with garden planning this year are many. I planted all of my tomatoes and peppers on the west wall last year, but I don't want to do that this year because we might be able to have the wall rebuilt this summer (budget allowing). A refresher on what that wall looks like:

The infernal failing wall

Above is the south end of the wall, the area that is seriously leaning. The top is a large area that I hope to be able to use entirely for gardens some day. Below is the west side of the wall:

West side

I think I can use some of this area this year, without interfering with construction, but I'll have to clear out more Black-eye Susan's to make room. The BES's themselves are somewhat of a garden challenge - they grow everywhere here. I never imagined they would spread the way they do on this property.

With the realization that I needed to find new places for tomatoes and peppers, I've decided to add another raised bed. Since it won't fit in line with the others because of a slope in the lot, it'll probably be on the flat area in front of the wall. So, I've added that project to the list, which also includes fencing the two un-fenced raised beds. I'd rather deal with the fence, which was a hassle to install, than deal with the rabbits, and this year's garden layout depends on all of the beds being fenced.

After all of today's noodling and measuring, here are the current versions of my plans:

Raised beds:

A better view can be found here: http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=791629

West wall area:

Better view here: http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=794671

Entire backyard:

Better view here: http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=801208

I hope those links work.

By this time last year, I had already started to plant things, so I'm a little behind, but I think I've finally got my garden mojo back, and that feels really good.