Intro

[katertot]

Hiya! Several friends of mine have moved over from livejournal and I'm hoping the communities are a little more active here than there. Judging by the date on the previous post, I'm out of luck. But it can't hurt to try. :)

I'm in central Iowa, the weather is cold, and I've recently ordered a whole bunch of seeds from rareseeds.com thanks to them matching sales for charity a few days back. I've got several garden areas, mainly a vegetable garden plus a bunch of neglected flower beds. (Thanks kids!) I'm excited to revamp at least one of them this spring, something I've been saying I'll do for a few years now. I've got zinnias, cosmos, and tomato seeds on the way, including a couple of more interesting colored zinnias.

In the meantime, hopefully the owls and hawks around here do a good job on the voles this winter, they are becoming quite a nuisance!

What are you most looking forward to this spring?

Comments

[cyprinella]

Be the change! ;)

A friend and I have a plan to take over large portions of her property with vegetables. This is very exciting to me because I love growing them but have a tiny townhouse lot. Hoping to get a big haul for both our families this year!

[sam_gardener]

Hi! I have been not-posting for so long that I didn't even remember this com was here. I think when I subscribed I didn't have a place to garden.

I'm in southern Oregon now with a little yard area to use for gardening :) There is snow on the ground at the moment.

This spring I look forward to planting my sun loving veggies in a new spot that gets more (enough?) sun. But first I have to work up the new area - so not sure how far I'll get. Also want to plant more soft fruit. And landscape some of the "too shady for edible plant areas" before the weather gets too hot and dry. In fact many more things than I have energy for in reality, but winter is a great time to dream of future gardens. :)

[via_ostiense]

Yay, a post! I forgot this comment was here.

My gardening is mostly potted succulents indoors, so for the spring, I'm looking forward to seeing them grow more as the sun comes back. Some of them have gotten leggy over the winter, so come spring, I'll behead and repot them as appropriate.

[loligo]

I moved this fall from a big mostly-shaded property to a little mostly-shaded property, but I brought a few of my favorite fancy daylilies with me and planted them in the one sunny nook right by the driveway. What I'm most excited about this spring is finding out whether they survived the winter!

[gairid]

This time of year I'm just noodling through the incoming seed and plant catalogs looking for ideas and making a list of the seeds I'll be ordering. We have a good piece of property in a rural area, so we have a vegetable garden as well as flower beds hither and yon which include a plethora of daylilies (they do well here since they are not picky about soil and can take the heat we get here in the summer) some butterfly bushes, irises, clematis, roses, salvias, gaillardia, coreopsis and whatever annuals I choose each season.

We also have a couple old fashioned lilacs, a persistantly wayward and rampant forsythia, and your normal boxwoods, viburnums and and other such shrubbery. Tree-wise, when we moved here 11 years ago there were not a lot of trees, but we planted the front up with a few others to supplement the existing mature oaks and four ornamental pears (3 Bradfords and a Chanticleer). Those trees have all filled in nicely and the front yard is nice and shady in the summer. The little 3' spruces we planted along the driveway as a windbreak are now nearing the 20' mark.

I worked for 20+ years in the garden biz, managing a plant nursey and I have a pretty decent working knowledge for what works in different situations, diognosing plant disease or insect infestation and plant identification. If anyone needs advice, I'm happy to offer it; I am semi retired now and I miss daily garden chatting!

Thanks, katertot, for opening up a conversation!

[katertot]

I'm sure I'll be posting questions in the spring! reddit has a pretty active gardening community, though every spring there is the influx of leggy seedling pictures. :D

Ah forsythia! I had fond memories of one from my childhood home, plus I use the flowers to somewhat plan my crabgrass preventative. The beast I planted 6 years ago has exploded and I have to trim back part of it multiple times a year just to get to the back of the garden.

Come to think of it, I have an elm with a bad spot on it, I might post a pic later to get opinions.

[cesy]

Hyacinths and spring bulbs coming up in my planter boxes.

[ozswede]

My poor garden is under a deep blanket of snow, fast asleep until April at least. I am in a rural area, so deer digging up my expensive tulip bulbs is something of an issue in winter, as well as wild hares ringbarking my young plum and cherry tree. I have wire netting set up around the beds, so we'll see.

My raspberry canes and red and blackcurrant bushes are cut back, ready for the new season. Lilac bushes trimmed back and hedges left for the birds to shelter. Bird feeders dominate in winter and there's lots of flying to and fro even in the bitter cold.

In the meantime, I'm reading the seed catalogues and planning the raised beds for vegetables, herbs and masses of flowers to last from spring until autumn. A lot of what are considered perennials in many other places are only annuals up here so far north. My garden is set up to attract birds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators.

[sporky_rat]

I've got an order about to go in at rareseeds.com (I love the Baker Creek folks) and I just took soil over to the State Extension service to get it checked out.

I am looking forward to eating my own tomatoes again.

[teapot_rabbit]

Baker Creek got me with their Syria sale too! I bought far more seeds than I can reasonable fit in my tiny, mostly concrete yard, but nothing new there. Lots of nasturtiums because I love them - they're so cheerful and uncomplaining and they remind me of my Granny - assorted other flowers, cucumbers, and carrots. I don't usually have much luck with carrots, but I was feeling optimistic.

Right now I'm enjoying watching the freesias and daffodils I planted last year poking up through the dirt. Come spring I will buy tomato and pepper starts (I don't have enough sun to start them inside) and then I will have to figure out what to do with the massive number of strawberry plants out back... I ordered some live strawberries from Baker Creek last year and they went CRAZY putting out runners. I must have on the order of ten times as many plants as I started with, and that's after giving a bunch away to my mother and brother.