Planning for 2010

This Spring, I hope to do several projects to spruce up the outdoors. First will be this depressed plot in front of the house, under the too-shady tree. I noticed it was beyond sad and destroying our curb appeal through the snowdrifts last week. Although the bench, wilted hosta, and stolen Solomon's seal did a little, I think I'll go for a more substantial planter and mulch with as many deep-shade loving plants as I can get to grow here.


I love growing fresh food, but I'm lucky that the husband loves it more, freeing me up to focus on my true love of flowers. As you can see, Mike marked out his plot for next year before any snow flew. This baby will be fenced in to keep the bunny friends fenced out. In addition to every pepper, squash, and bean variety known to man, we'll have a few heirloom tomatoes, garlic (already planted in the early snow), several kinds of herbs, and who knows what else the man already ordered from the seed catolog!



Full, flowering shrubs quicken my heart the most, but there really are no sunny spots to plant them, so I've decided to beef up my seed-starting skills this year. There will be flowers I've successfully grown from seed before (zinnias, nasturtiums, sweet peas, sunflowers), favorites I've only bought as baby plants (coleus, dahlias, violas, snapdragons), and what I'm most excited about, new beauties I've never planted before (stock, columbines, delphinium). The big question is which ones the bunnies will try to eat-- no impatiens this year!!

There may be many failures; I may blow my entire gardening budget on seeds that wilt before gaining their second sets of leaves; there may be no blooms before mid-August. But I've already prepared my husband for the possibility of spending a bunch of money on plants on impulse once May hits, so what's there to lose?