2011 Garden Projects

I was inspired by an email I got yesterday from my friend Mike. He asked what I had planned in the garden for the upcoming year and gave me his list of projects. He has a lot of great ideas and some interesting projects planned. Until this point, I really didn't have much planned for the coming year, and this email correspondence inspired me to write up a list of projects and reminded me to revisit last year's list.

2010 Garden Projects:

New raised bed for the vegetable garden (mainly for onions) - next to grape arbor in the photo below

• Move current occupants of area that will become raised bed to front yard. Done, and this worked so well, I added a new raised bed in front of the greenhouse- a garlic bed
• Reduce bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoreugnaria spicata) in front yard and replace with displaced plants in the area that will be occupied by the new raised bed. Done
• Remove one Steuben blue grape vine (we have two vines that produce over 50lbs of grapes/ year. That is a lot of jelly) and replace with a Himrod (seedless table grape). In the photo above one of the grapes is going for a ride. Done. The Steuben blue has a new home at my friend's house in Idaho.
• Install cameras in bird boxes and connect to Internet. Done

• Complete outdoor grill shed (all I need is to install the roof, so I am waiting for someone with galvanized delta rib roofing to remove theirs and donate it to Home Resource).Done
  
  
• Remove one section of lawn and replace with natives like hairy golden aster (Heterotheca villosa), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), showy fleabane (Erigeron speciosus) that I will mow to form a meadow.
  
  
• I liked this so much, I got rid of the last vestigial lawn patch, and replaced it with more flowers and an urbanite path.
  
• Prune clematis on garage. Done, but I have to do it again. It is a bigger job than you'd think.
• Start a bunch of native plants in the greenhouse to add to our front yard to replace some bluebunch wheatgrass and blue flax (Linum lewisii). Done. See the Elkhorn clarkia (Clarkia pulchellum), in the photo below.
• Make a new compost bin? Not completed in 2010

So, my list for 2011

• Make a new 3 bin composter
• Plant some trees in decadent aspen stand. I am thinking mountain ash (Sorbus scopulina), but we'll see. The aspen have performed admirably, but it is time to move on. Plus, we have the same number of aspen in our garden, they are just in different places.
  
  
• Prune the white clematis (Clematis ligusticafolia) on the garage, again a bigger job than you'd think.
• Rearrange some plants in the front prairie, including getting rid of a green rabbit brush (Ericameria viscidiflora) and adding more shrubby trees close to the house
• Replace urbanite in front of the greenhouse and on the side yard that has settled too low. Replace it with larger chunks. It became painfully obvious this past week that these low spots were too annoying to live with
• Start some native plants in the greenhouse. Always a good goal. I want more sticky geraniums (Geranium viscosissimum) in the garden (photo on the top of the post).
• Make a "cut-off" trail in front of the onion bed. The area near the grill shed is kind of a congested area in the garden and by adding this new trail/ path, people will be able to flow better.
• Stream 2 nest box cameras simultaneously this year. Last year I streamed the chickadee camera, and later the flicker camera. While I am at it, maybe I should invest in another camera to stream the nuthatch box.

Lots to do. It will be another exciting year. And here I thought I didn't have any garden plans!