I decided to tackle several projects for 2012, and wanted to write up a list of objectives for this year. Keep in mind I really haven't reviewed all my 2011 hopefuls yet, so the list might change.
I want to continue cleaning up the raspberry bed. Need to keep trimming back and killing off the weedy trees part next to the fence. Transplant the raspberries up by the house to down into the bed. Perhaps even plant in a couple red raspberries to complement the black ones.
Future project will be placing golden raspberries somewhere else since they apparently don't play nice with blacks and reds.
The preliminary stages for the herbal fence will be going in this year. Laying out black plastic, and doing a three sisters garden in square foot style.
Future project will be slowly introducing permanent herbs. I know that fenceline will end up being important, and so I want to take my time and plan it well.
The first segment of veggie row will go in this year along the north fenceline. Again, supercheating with black plastic. I'm thinking in eventual terms of square foot here too. I'm not positive how well I will pull off square foot for this segment, and I know I will have some failures. But I really need to start using some of all this wonderful seed I have from swapping, and I'm guessing I will be relearning a lot of gardening. And I really need to figure out this year just what bed sizes will be put in and how they will be placed in the future.
Future projects will be building in the square foot beds, creating mowing stones for the border.
Composting. 2011 composting efforts were kind of not the best. This year will be an improvement. Gonna keep the big heap o shit for my main dumping patch. But I am also going to set up a couple of chicken wire barrels too. One at the junction of the herbal fence and veggie row, and I'm thinking maybe one somewhere around the mulberry tree, perhaps kind of under the maple canopy.
Future efforts will be getting good enough with the composting to fill my raised beds, build vertical mushroom "logs" of chickenwire and compost.
And yep, will start collecting horse poo in 2012 for composting.
Orchard. Learning about pruning and spraying action, so will be doing something with the orchard this year. Right now I want to concentrate more on keeping the trees in shape and tending to the canopy floor. I will be continuing the promotion of moss around the tree bases. I'm ordering some roman chamomile and creeping thyme seed this year, and I think I will be experimenting with a few of the starts here.
Future plans: the addition of a plum tree(s) for sure. I am allowing myself only two more trees positions for the orchard, thus the need for the living fence.
The driveways. With any luck, I will be planting in some lilac starts and ditchlilly transplants along the easement drive "swamp row". I am for sure planning on at least marking in the lilac row with sunflowers this year. Mammoth variety I do believe, an eater type rather than a decorative one.
The arch drive will see a part 2 of the 2011 action. I liked the notion, the execution was super sucky. Still have a package or two of mixed s/p/g's. So this year it's black plastic again to the rescue, and I will be starting then transplanting seeds. I think this will result in a major improvement. The drive itself is still gonna be a wood drop area for a while. Yeah, this spring will see a lot of burnings of the stuff dropped in the arch drive.
Try to keep weeds out of the pavement better this year.
Future projects are all over the place right now.
Firepit Sanctuary. Hopefully my scattering of the Wild Carrot border on the east side will yield results this year. Carrot is a biannual. That means I should see greenery this year, flowers for seed next year. And if I don't see greenery this year? Go around the yard collecting seed heads and try again.
I have a large shaker building up of wildflower seed to broadcast on the west side. Think I'm going to try "plugging' with it. Tearing up smallish sections, and concentrating efforts. When stuff does grow, will make it easier for seed scattering and collecting.
I also have built up a lot of my bordering marigold seed for the firepit cutout. Lot's of seed and seed heads from the super cheap discount marigold plants I got last summer. Those will be scattered around the entire edges. Of my bought stock, a bit of it will go into starting plants, more of it will go to a late sowing of the cheap marigold scattering. Most of the chamomile and creeping thyme I'm getting will go to parts of the area too.
Future projects will be making the stepping stones to expand out from the firepit, encouraging the walkable plants to grow in between. The rest of the sanctuary will get addressed in 2013 and beyond.
Wee folk garden. Want to put in stepping stones and stairs marking out the path between the house and the firepit crossing. Anything else is gravy.
FOH garden. Got a ton of plantain seed I harvested around the yard to broadcast into part of the upper tier. Found a lot of them growing as weeds there, and not much else would grow there, so I figured I would put the area to good use. Finish filling in the well hole, and mark it well.
I'm thinking of letting the walk down between tiers stay natural, and just work on evening out the ramp. It's a gentle enough slope for it, and I bet I can get some of the local mosses to take grab there.
Grandma's gardening: Transplanted those gorgeous huge blue irises, will need to watch the area to see if they took or not. I think they did :) Need to watch the spot of double daffs down at the raspberry cutdown area this year and mark them so I know where to dig when it comes time for transplanting. I hope I was able to save enough poppy seed from the two weak grandmas poppies along the south side of the solarium to be able to start repopulating that bed in 2012. With any luck I may be able to capture enough seed to pass on some of 2013 harvest to Chris. The lily of the valley pool around the base of the chinese chestnuts will continue being shifted- in 2011 I pulled the edges of the main pool from the south side of the trees to start filling in the north side of the trees. I will do much more realigning this year.
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