Thursday, January 6, 2011

2011 Garden Plans

This is my first New Year as a garden blogger. It seems an appropriate time and place for a brain dump of all the garden projects I have swirling around in my head. I probably won’t get all of these done this year, but it’s a good list of the things I want to do in the garden. I’ll check in at the end of 2011 and review what was accomplished.

In no particular order:
  1. Volunteer my garden to be on the neighborhood garden tour. Our neighborhood started a backyard garden tour in 2005. I have been a docent for about 3 of the tours and it is about time my garden joins the party.

  2. Install a rain water collection system. I’ve found two different sources for rain barrels, so now I just have to decide on which ones I will use. Here are the two companies I will likely use: Texas Metal Cisterns and Plastic-Mart.

  3. IMG_1553Finish building the new beds that I started a few months ago. I figure I will need about 10 yards of dirt to complete these beds plus I still have to get all the edging level and get some of the winter weeds out.






  4. Redesign the front gardens with 80% or more native plants. Ok, this will be a challenge. I suffer from plant impulse buyer syndrome. It is really difficult for me to make a plan before I start buying plants, but we’ll see how it goes. I have bought a few books to help me out with this, Texas Wildscapes: Gardening for WildlifeGardening with Native Plants of the South, and Native Texas Plants: Landscaping Region by Region. (a note about these links-I just signed up for an Amazon associates plan, so I do get a little something from Amazon if you buy these books after clicking the link, just so you know)

  5. Stop buying plants that I do not intend to plant right away. OK, this one will be more difficult than #4. I currently have a ton of bulbs from the October Bulb & Plant Mart as well as around 20 potted plants from the fall plant sales that have still not been put in the ground. This is really problematic during the summer when I am out of town for business or vacation. Luckily my mother-in-law really likes me and is willing to toil in the heat to keep my plants alive while I am not around. But, this needs to stop. I can do this, I’m sure I can, at least I think I can, maybe.

  6. Add more fruit trees, including planting the lemon and fig that I already have.

    Backstory
    IMG_1941First, the story behind the lemon tree…My dad bought a Meyer Lemon about 4 or 5 years ago and there were actually 3 trees in the same pot. He gave me one and it has been in a pot ever since. While his tree is about 8’ tall and last year produced hundreds of lemons, mine is about two feet tall and has produced 3 lemons since I’ve had it. Poor lemon tree has suffered my neglect long enough, it will go in the ground in the spring, I declare it will be done!

    and the story behind the fig tree…(actually not so different from the lemon tree story) I was given cuttings from what is either a LSU Gold or Conadria fig. I successfully rooted two of them. I gave my dad one and I have the other. His tree is about 6 foot tall and produced some tasty figs this year. Mine is one foot tall and has not produced. (I’m starting to get a little depressed at this point)

    I know there are a couple of problems with #6. I have already alluded to the fact that I have too many plants in pots and that I (almost) habitually buy plants then take forever to get them in the ground. But, this time will be different, I swear.

    I’m signed up for next week’s Urban Harvest class entitled High Density Home Orchard Management. Exciting! The first part of the description is “This system enables the urban gardener to quadruple the variety of fruit they can grow without buying a single square foot of land.” Nice, that’s what I want to do, quadruple the variety of fruit in my yard. I will be hitting the Urban Harvest Fruit Tree Sale hard this year, hopefully it won’t be as cold as last year’s.

  7. IMG_1940Install the arbor I bought last summer. I got a great deal on this at Lowe’s, but I wasn’t ready to put it up, I’m still not. I need to get those new beds finished first and get all those fruit tress planted. This project probably won’t happen until the summer.
So, that’s it. My gardening to do list for this year. Wish me luck!

12 comments:

  1. Big plans! Tell my mom about your rain gather. She's been looking for one that she'll like.

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  2. I hope you accomplish all your goals...they sound very ambitious! Can't wait to see the makeovers and new beds!

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  3. Hey Scott, have you heard about the garden bloggers meet-up in July in Seattle? Send me an email if you want more info. My addy is in my profile.

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  4. I put out my plans for 2011 - and I'm not sure how embarrassed I'll be at the end of the year when I see how far I got. Good luck to us both.

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  5. Hey, I found your blog through Indygardener... I'm so excited to find another Houston area gardener and blogger.

    On resolution #5, I'm glad someone else does that. Yay, I'm not alone! Buchanan's Native Plants gets me into trouble on the overbuying front. I haven't been to any local gardening club sales though, hmm...

    Good luck on your resolutions!

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  6. Sounds like a great list! I'm interested in seeing what you think of your new rain barrels. Those have been on my list for some time, and although I don't make resolutions, I swear this is the year I'll get one or two! I hope if you get on the garden tour that you have a year when the weather is perfect and your garden will shine. I was on one once after one of those horrible droughty summers. It was a lot of work, so good luck!

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  7. Hey Jean, I am very much against making resolutions as well. These are just plans. ;)

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  8. You have a lot of great projects coming up.
    It will be very interesting seeing how they all develop, please keep us posted.
    Best luck for the starting year!

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  9. My favorites on your list are #1 and #5. You certainly must join the garden tour. Not only to share your garden, but as incentive to get your trellis installed. We are all guilty of buying plants that we don't get in the ground. Makes me so mad when I do that. Better planning, I would say. Hit the nursery early in the morning and plant as soon as you get home--I guess. In the heat of the day? Ok. nursery late in the day, plant early the next day? Good luck. cheers. ann

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  10. I made a resolution one year to not buy any new plants but just buy more of plants I already had that were working. Really increases the impact in the garden and cuts out impulse buying.

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  11. I want to do #2 and #4... I've wanted to put in a rain barrel for years-maybe this year! Good luck, keep us posted :)

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  12. I love these goals! Anything fruit makes me happy and I am enjoying the focus on it as I look through your blog. I rooted my fig, too -- it's so satisfying to look at my big tree and know where it came from.

    I'd love it if you'd submit a post for the next issue of How to Find Great Plants. Here's the link:

    http://www.appalachianfeet.com/how-to-find-great-plants/

    If you don't have time to write a new post, you can use one you've already written. I'd be okay with a theme of "fruit" instead of a specific plant family if you wanted to submit one of your fruit series posts.

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