How's the planning going DiGs? Do you have anything started yet?

This year with the weather warming up much sooner than normal, and all of the trees, grape vines, and well, everything coming to life much earlier than expected, I have been horribly behind.
The grapes at the farm did not get pruned, not at all, and it's too late now because if you do any major pruning on them, they bleed out. I'm hoping I didn't accidentally kill one of my backyard grapes because I cut off a major branch and it's still dripping a week later. They sell this tar-like stuff you can spray on, but i don't have any at my house, I just know it exists.
Almost all of my efforts have gone into digging back various types of plants that propagate by root. I tell you, I've had enough daylilies, mint, tarragon, and bee balm to last a lifetime. The daylilies in particular I'm at war with as they're getting into my other much more desirable flowers. I'm going to move them elsewhere.
This is going to sound silly, but due to my sister's wedding last month, I never got my peppers and tomatoes started this year. I was trying to keep my fingernails clean for the wedding. I still plan to start some tomatoes, but i know they will be way behind. I think it'll be ok.
I did get onions planted, and I'm off to buy potatoes to stick in the ground.
Is anybody else gardening yet? Or do you all actually still have some winter hanging on? I think our winter is done and over with.

Is anybody else gardening yet?

Hearing reports of recent snow from where I know most of you live, I'm guessing the answer is 'no'.
I got my potatoes in, they're coming up. The onions look great despite several being nipped off by rabbits the night after I planted them.

Yesterday I spent my day at my in-laws working on their flower bed. I think I've mentioned it on here before, but about three years ago, we paid my sister to do an official landscaping design to hide their septic sewer vents in their front yard. We've been warring with moles and other various critters in an attempt to keep all of the flowers alive and doing well, but the area is now fairly well established and looking great! Now it just needs to grow up.
I wish I could get my own front flower bed looking as nice. Last weekend with the help of my hubby we did get it cleaned up a lot. I moved several things around, dug out several flowers that annoy me because they spread by root and take over other flowers I like more, and got a few things planted. And naturally that night we were alerted to the possibility of a last minute freeze. So we trooped back outside and covered as much stuff as possible, including our cherry tree, strawberry patch, and grape vines, through the rest into the greenhouse and hoped for the best. I don't think it ended up getting that cold and everything looks just fine.
I'm waiting to see what tomatoes and peppers come up and then I'll stick those in the ground. That's next on my to-do list. But first I'm going to have to wait for it to dry out after all this rain!

I think winter is over here! I believe that this April we may have had more snow accumulation than in February!!! The past few days, however, have been very spring-like, so the snow is now gone, except in protected/north-side areas. Prep for gardening is beginning, as we have lots of yard work clean-up to do before planting begins no earlier than the weekend of May 20 (Canada's unofficial start to summer long weekend), for we can still get frost until then.

With the few warm days we had in late February, my stonecrop plants began to sprout, then went back into dormancy when all the snow, ice, and cold came back. Now, though, with temperatures in the low 70s, they're flourishing again. But from present appearances, I think a couple of my perennials did not make it over the winter. We'll see though ... maybe they're just still waking up.

Since we only moved here not even a couple of years ago, we are still much in the planning stages of gardening. I don't even know if we'll get a full veggie garden in again this year. Next year for sure, though!!! I can't live without my fresh garden tomatoes, so will definitely plant 5 or 6 plants of those.

I want to get more perennials this year, plus we want to dig more perennial gardens. It all takes time, but is such fun. I'm eager to get my hands in the rich earth soon again.

Oh, fantasia, I really like that wall herb garden ^. How cool Tom made you a smaller version! And glad those plants survived that potential freezing snap.

So glad you can garden again this year, DiGsY!

I'm breaking up the sod that had taken over my garden area due to three years of not gardening. Doing it by hand with a shovel is backbreaking work, and I'm only able to do a little bit at a time. The end result should be a garden about 150 sq feet.

My current planting plans are:
-Green onions
-Two varieties of carrots:
-One variegated color
-One plain orange sweet variety
-Spinach
-A couple different blends
-A new-to-me plant called Red Dragon Sprouts.
-They look like bean sprouts that you'd buy in the store. Got two
large packs of seeds for free, so I figured, eh, why not.
-Tomatoes
-Probably 1 Roma plant and 1 Heirloom plant
-Bush beans
-For Mom
-Cucumbers
-Probably only one mound
-Cilantro

I don't know what else to plant, but those are my choices thus far.

Almost all of my sod has been removed in my garden.

Today I visited my local garden centre, and made the following purchases:
-Lemon Verbena
-Catnip
-English Lavender
-Brandywine Tomato Plant
-Roma Tomato Plant
-3 Green Pepper Plants
-3 Italian Roasting Peppers

I honestly have no idea what to do with the verbena and lavender, but they smelled amazing. The catnip was basically an impulse . But those three things actually went into the ground tonight.

I need to buy some onion-sets tomorrow, and I'll get those in the ground tomorrow afternoon. The goal for tomorrow is also to get the rest of the sod up, and potentially get the seeds in the ground for the carrots, sprouts and spinach.

I also need to get the flowerbeds taken care of. If I can get the weeding done this week, that'd be awesome. . . that'll leave next week for planting.

Ugh, it's hard when it's just me.

Gardening is hard work, but it sounds like yours is shaping up nicely DiGs!

We have had SO MUCH RAIN!!!! I haven't been able to do much gardening at all. We shouldn't have any more rain today, but after 2.5" of rain overnight last night i don't think I'll be able to get out there today. Just too mucky.

Other than that, my garden looks great. Up to this point i've managed to keep the weeds in check this year, though that will turn around rapidly if I can't get out there (we're expecting rain all week, today being the exception). Oh, and a rabbit ate one of my peppers. It's still alive, but set way back.

I need to get out and take some pictures while it looks nice.

I've got all of my things in the ground! I'll post some pictures on facebook tonight, but as almost everything is buried underground, it's kind of pointless for everything except for seeing the layout.

I ended up with the following:
Lemon Verbena
English Lavender
Catnip
Three rows (four feet) of green onions
Four rows (four feet) of carrots
Two rows (four feet) of sprouts
Four rows (four feet) of spinach
One roma tomato
One Brandywine tomato
Three Green Bell Peppers
Three Italian Roaster Peppers

That leaves me with approximately 8' x 4' for some pole beans for Mom.

Almost all of my sod has been removed in my garden.

That is hard work! But somehow satisfying too, as one works in the garden to prepare it.

Gardening is hard work, but it sounds like yours is shaping up nicely DiGs!

Indeed! No doubt you will enjoy a bountiful harvest, DiGs, yum-plus!

Eager to see some pics from you both when you can. But !!!, fantasia, for all your rain!

We will definitely not get a veggie garden in this year, but are hoping to dig it up this autumn in anticipation of planting next spring. But, as usual, I 'had' to have tomato plants, so have planted 2 Brandywines and 4 Cherry tomatoes. Plus some parsley.

Other than that, I have put in a bunch of annuals (geraniums, begonias, dusty miller, fuschia, coleus) and also planted more perennials (lupine, hosta, lily-of-the-valley, and dianthus—which, apparently, can be a perennial too). It obviously takes a while to establish a perennial garden, so ours looks very young still, but that's okay ... they're started! And we didn't lose a single perennial that we planted last year, so yay! Each plant is flourishing, 'though small-ish yet. Beautiful!

We have not had rain since well over a week ago (the poor farmers, who just planted a few weeks back), so everything is exceedingly dry. I get out there and water often twice a day (early morning and evening) in this hot and humid weather, but I love doing that. It gives me a concentrated chance to see how each individual plant is faring.

Looks like we'll be having corn growing behind us this year. The past couple of years have been soy, which surprised everyone last year when corn didn't go in (assuming the common alternating method).

Dianthus is definitely a perennial here in Ohio, Jo. It's one of Mom's favourites (but I'm not a huge fan)

I walked out to my garden today, just to make sure that there weren't a TON of cicadas in there, and to my shock and awe, the sprouts are up! I thought they were weeds at first, but then I thought "Hmm. . . . these weeds are growing a bit too regularly in a straight line." So excited that they're growing so quickly as I have a ton of seeds (70 grams total )

Interesting about dianthus. I guess different varieties fall into either the perennial or annual category. I've just been learning about them in the past year or so, and really like them.

Yay for the sprouts that are up! Weeds in a straight line ... lol!

I forgot to mention above that I planted a lot of zinnia seeds—some 6" and some 30 - 36". Too bad they won't be fully grown for the Moot; they're going to be so pretty and colourful. And I just noticed today that the first teensie hint of green has risen above the soil for both rows of zinnias, so yay!

Let us pause for a moment of silence. . . . .

We are here to note the passing of the following:
-My roma tomato plant
-A large branch of the brandywine tomato plant
-Most of one of my Italian roasters

The culprit has yet to be identified, but the characteristic "crunch" patterns, and hoof-prints in the dirt seem to indicate a particularly criminal cervid.

There's a decent possibility that those tomatoes will actually come back and still produce this season if left alone. Tomatoes are super tough plants. I remember once time I accidentally broke one off at the ground, and not only did the rooted part come back, sticking the top part made it re-root so I got two tomato plants for the price of one.

That's really annoying though. i had a rabbit almost complete eat my green bell pepper this spring. It's coming back, but I don't know if it'll recover enough to put on any peppers.

The deer have completely demolished my garden.

They uprooted and ate all my brandywine and beefsteak tomatoes, my spinach (fortunately I think most of this will grow back if given the chance), my lettuce (one's coming back), my cosmos, and one pepper plant. Something's also been nibbling my beans, radish, dill, and parsley.

My pumpkins and my cucumber don't seem to be doing well... they're leaves keep turning brown

At least my red pride tomatoes are still alive (they're still in pots and I bring them in the house at night) I have three tomatoes growing on them. I also have 3 strawberries growing on my potted quinault, and a few tiny little ones on my wild strawberry plants. Last week Walmart finally had more strawberry plants and I had no money to invest in any XD My luck. Oh well, as I told Astro, I have the rest of my life to work on my strawberry plant collection. For right now, I'm just focusing on saving what I can from the deer.

I will never listen to Dad and put plants in the ground before it's fenced again. "They won't eat them til they're bigger!" he said. Yeah... I should have known better, but everything was out growing the pots... he still hasn't fenced it XD

I bought some Lilies of the Valley, Day lillies, and Irises last month. Unfortunately, I'm thinking I'll have to wait til next year until they flower. I also planted some sweet annie from a friend. I love the look and smell of the stuff XD

*pauses for a few moments of silence for the plants that have been consumed by critters* Really sorry to hear that. But I'm kinda chuckling, too, at your dad's confident line, wolfy. Ah well, live and learn.

I have never planted lilies and want to start! They're so beautiful.

Our tomato plants won't be producing for awhile yet. In the meantime, we're enjoying local produce from our town market, which comes directly from the many farmers in the area. Delicious!

Our area badly needs rain—we haven't had a good downpour for over a month now. That good rainfall that was forecast towards the end of June sadly never came.

Have I mentioned we're going to dig up the space for our veggie garden, hopefully this autumn, in prep for next spring? Excited!

I've barely posted in here this year sadly. But I do have a bumper crop of tasty tomatoes. I did make a very interesting discovery this year though. Due to starting my tomato plants so late, I bought two Juliet tomato plants, and then had two of my own from seed that I started. The ones from seed taste so much better than the ones I bought as plants. VERY interesting... so in the future I will be sure to start my plants from seed all the time.