Spring Planning?

[Nitefalle]

Okay, who has started planning for their gardens? I can't wait until after Ostara, which is when my last frosts normally are, and I can get out there and start turning some soil!!

[Brigid Rowan]

Me me me!!!!!!!! It is a thing for me, about this point in winter, to start flipping through the seed and plant catalogs and "Oooohing n Aaahhhinnng" over stuff. I "got bit" early this year and planted a TON of bulbs last fall. I think it was 500 bulbs or so, maybe more. (Yeah, it was a lot of digging.) So Im looking forward to seeing the bulbs begin to grow soon, wont be long!

Plus Im planning on adding to the english ivy, and putting in herbs along a sunny wall. Im considering roses. The last house had an english rose garden, and we'd have blooms and blooms and it smelled soooo good. We also have lost 2 trees and a bush this winter, so those have to come out and be replaced.

[Zoritsa_Nepenthe]

We're hoping to put our house up for sale this Spring/Summer,so I'm only planning on growing some herbs and maybe some cherry tomatoes,even if we're still here come Fall,I don't want to tend to a big garden....but I can't wait to get out there and get started.

[skilly-nilly]

This is one of my favourite times---I can look at beautiful pictures in the catalogues and imagine them in my garden growing beautifully with no weeds!

I found myself to lack Fall colour last year so I'm looking at plants for that. I also made a suitable environment (bog) last year for an alder tree so I want to find a sapling this Spring.

[Zephyrstorm]

I've got the itch, and this weekend, I'm hoping to head for the library for a book or five on container gardening. :)

[aranarose]

This will be my first attempt at any sort of gardening. I do, however, have the slight advantage of having a grandfather and mother who are master gardeners with years of experience. My mother even has certifications in horticulture. So I'll be asking LOTS of advice from them.

I want vegetables. I'm going to grow a salad garden, as well as herbs and a few flowers.

[Brigid Rowan]

This thread has me itchin to go dig in the dirt and buy plants and stuff...LOL...Im ready for spring!!

[Treegoddess]

Oh yes! I've been reading and reading, drawing up plans for my new rock patio and perennial garden I'm planting, as well as my vegetable garden (which is getting moved this year). I cannot WAIT! I have rocks already out back just waiting until I can dig up the ground. I've filled countless online baskets with stuff (just window shopping tho! LOL) I'm so so so excited, I have gardened for quite a few years, but have felt like I had a black thumb and this year I'm just jumping in head first. I figure I'll have so much growing that I won't get too upset if I lose a few things.

Oh and I got so ahead of myself that I actually started some seeds. They are herbs though, so they will stay inside for quite a while (or forever). Our last frost can be as late as April 20, but I won't wait that long, I'll take my chances a few weeks earlier! :p

[Anwell]

I got my plans already set up. But I'm going to grow out of pots and such things. My father is going to put up a chicken thing in the garden (sorry for the lack of proper terms, but I don't know how to call it in English besides 'chicken-thing').
I'm going to grow lots of herbs, I just love the smell of them!! Can't wait to get my hands on a few herbal magazines and some seeds :D

[Eldawyn]

Brigid Rowan and I have been talking about gardening this summer, but I must say I am jealous of her! She lives in a lovely, WARM climate and I'm up here in the desert mountains with a 3 month growing period.

On top of that -- I do NOT have a green thumb. But I was willing to try this year! Now though, we may or may not be moving, so it's all going to be very hard.

:sadeyes:

[Shanti]

We are planning like crazy.
We already cut our grocery bill in half raising our own meats now its the veggy/fruit/herb/grain stuff to conquer!!!

Goal...not 'needing' a grocery store (with the exception of TP). :hahugh:

We are going with SFG ( square foot gardening)
We have done that before. It was awesome and easy and very productive.
With unlimited compost, unlimited natural fertilizers, and a lot of space...SFG is perfect for us, perfect for the area we have chosen.

[Juniper138]

I have to move by March 1st, as the evil suburbs are moving into my rural area and soon my nice little farm will become condos. I am still looking for a place *sigh* so I have to wait until I find a place, and I have to keep the plants I start indoors down to a minimum.

[Lupabitch]

This'll be my first year with an actual garden (instead of a pair of tomato plants plunked right into the back yard). Because of the apartment I'm in, I can do a lot of container gardening on the downstairs neighbors' roof (they're friends and don't mind at all, since they have the very small bits of actual cultivatable ground around the house). So I'm planning on a lot of tomatoes, carrots, either string beans or peas, onions, bell peppers, and either lettuce or cukes. I went to the local Goodwill and bought a bunch of secondhand gardening books, including some specific to the Pacific Northwest (Seattle Tilth FTW!). I'll probably start planting in April, which gives me a couple months to do research and collect the right size containers.

[Nitefalle]

I'll really start planning in March, and seeing what I can divide and give to a friend that's finally moving into an apartment with a balcony again, so she can do some container gardening. Even though I have everything pretty much set as I prefer perennials, I can still do some annual gardening and plant more bulbs in the front, and maybe insert some in my herb patch and move the hosta out of there. I still have some rearranging to do until everything is exactly where I want it - wow, maybe I do still have some planning to do :lol:

[Zephyrstorm]

The husband is all for me getting a new plant stand for the patio, and a nice window box for herbs. *dances* Now I just need to consider what precisely I want this year. :)

[Nitefalle]

So, in the vein of spring planning for the garden, who else is planning for Ostara / Vernal Equinox? I'm trying to think of some foods to make as well as what to do, since not all of our members are gardeners and it will most likely be inside (depending on weather, of course).

What is everyone else doing for Ostara??

[Zephyrstorm]

I'm fortunate in that we live far enough south that Ostara is prime spring weather here.

Just before Ostara, my husband and I are renewing our vows.
Around Ostara, the Pagan Student Association will host a Spring Festival in the park with picnicing and music and leaving offerings of seed balls for the birds and the like.
And then on Ostara itself, we'll have a good cookout most likely, and we'll welcome the warmer weather in officially.

[Convallaria]

My mother, step father and I have already purchased our seeds, have all of our Canadian Gardener magazines out to see if we'd like to try anything new this year. For my mom's birthday I bought her a "gardening belt" ie. I got a tool belt and filled the pockets with new gardening gloves, a new hand spade, hand weeder, a little pair of loppers, and a little hand rake. Her birthday is in April, and I can't wait to give it to her, lol. I also found this wonderful, raffia roll brim hat with a big peach ribbon! I hope she loved it as much as I do!

[SilverClaw]

I am so eager it is not funny I hope to be in fulls wing at the end of the month :) For Vegetables, we are going to try tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, carrots and radishes. For fruits not sure other then strawberries, and for herbs Chocolate mint, regular mint, Lavender, Eucalyptus rosemary, Cat nip, Chamomille...

Then aside from all that for flowers Sweet peas, Marigolds and carnations :) I know I am forgetting somethings but that is what I can remember.

This year it will be fun because our garden is also my kids science project.

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I'm trying to think of some foods to make as well as what to do, since not all of our members are gardeners and it will most likely be inside (depending on weather, of course).

What is everyone else doing for Ostara??
I asked my kids what we were going to do to celebrate and they said bake bread and make egg salad and any other things that do with eggs :D So aside from that I hope to be making some new Spring ritual tools for me and my kids and when they plant their flower seeds do some spell work while we are planting.

[Shanti]

Our season is quite aways off.
But this year we are growing a lot!!
We need to replace stores as much as possible.

Produce is to expensive, spices are insane, and everything is going up to fast.

We want to grow anything and everything we can get our paws on!

1/2 of our gardens will not be for harvesting. 1/2 will be for seeds for next year.
Heck the price of seeds is pay more for less!! I dont want to buy anymore seeds either!

We have pumpkin and winter squash seeds for this year from letting the fruit rot from last year. :)

[SilverClaw]

Produce is to expensive, spices are insane, and everything is going up to fast.

We want to grow anything and everything we can get our paws on!
Yes I agree that is the same here and with the possibility of another grocery store strike that is also one of my many reasons for getting more back to the basics .

[Race_Angel]

Well unfortunately I don`t have my own garden yet (stil living at home with mom and dad) But I really have ideas for what I want and how I want it. All sorts of fresh herbs for all kinds of purposes. Flowers and some fruits like strawberry`s and a Cherrytree if possible.

For now I only have my pots with herbs with my mom. So we will go work on that for now, buying new seeds and plants for them.