Monday, February 20, 2012

2012 Garden Projects

It is time for my annual assessment of what I said I'd do, and what I hope to complete in the new year.  Now is a great time to make lists and review what worked last year and what didn't.  I like to review everything from vegetable garden plans, to seed starting and landscaping ideas.  This is actually one of my main reasons for a maintaining a blog- to be able to organize and record all these things- it is truly an online garden journal.

Last year, this was my plan:

  • 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.- Done!

  • 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.  Done!
  • 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.  Done!
  • 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- done in 2012!
According to that list I accomplished about 50% of the things I wanted to do.  But along the way, I added more projects, including:

There were probably a few other things I am forgetting, so it was not a total failure!

This year, I hope to do a few things I promised to do last year, and some more.  So, here are my projects for 2012, in no particular order:
  • Make a three bin composter- I have been saying this for a few years, and this year it will happen.  I will do it or else it will be on the 2013 list of things to do!
  • Prune the white clematis on the arbor behind the shop (always ion my list of things to do, sometime I do it).
  • Install a nest box camera inside the nuthatch box (I did this already this morning, so I am kind of cheating on my list).
  • Move the apple tree to the north east corner of the vegetable garden so its gets more light and water.
  • Moving the apple tree will require relocating the rain barrel and path, then a little re landscaping ion the new and former location
  • add a little fence or wall between the outdoor dining room and the hammock area (in the bottom right hand corner of the photo below).  This is one of these problem areas, that I am always reworking.  Maybe a little something in the way of hard-scaping will do the trick

  • Install power out to the greenhouse.  This has been on my list for a few years, whether I write it down or not.
  • Add some more shrubs to the front of the house- I've been working on this for a couple of years and I think it is starting to come together.
  • 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 last year that these low spots were too annoying to live with (it turns out, it was easier than I thought it would be to ignore this!)
  • Connect the urbanite path in the back all the way to the alley.
  • Continue my insect collection- this has been so amazing and rewarding.  


  • One more project- I can't believe I forgot this one- a fence for the front yard.  I've been collecting vintage, double-hoop, woven wire fencing from Home ReSource for a year for this.  I haven't worked out the details for the design, but when I'm done, I'll be sure to post pictures.



As always, lots to do.  Every year, at some point I struggle to think of projects, and when I sit down to make a list the projects are all there.  

A garden is never finished.  Thank goodness.


3 comments:

  1. I think 50% is a very admirable success rate. When I look back on my yearly to-do lists, anything near 50% would have been an unbridled success. The red doors and accent work to the front of the shop building look tremendous, very nicely done.

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  2. El Gaucho - thanks so much for your comments! It's not that 50% is bad, but i keep putting off the same 50%! Thanks again, David

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice work... To plan a making gardens and vegetable garden i use organic seeds catalogs to choose seasonable flowers and veggies for better outputs.

    Organic Seed Companies

    ReplyDelete