Do-over

I can't believe I get a do-over.  I get to completely start a new garden again.  This means I can fix things I didn't like about my last garden.  I see that my new place is about 1000 feet in elevation higher than the old one.  That will mess with me a bit as far as freezes go.  Plus we're up on a hill that gets plenty of wind.  Hmmmm... That means I'm going to have to give the garden plenty of shelter when it comes to that.

I also really want to add a green house to this garden.  I've had a little porch greenhouse that works pretty well for starting seeds but I sure could use one that I could walk into.  I'm trying to figure out where the best spot for a green house will be.  Of course the South side of the house, but whether or not to put it in my actual fenced garden area or just outside that I'm not sure yet.  I suppose it will depend on what I end up doing for a green house.  I'd like to use passive solar heat for it and I don't want it getting blown over.  There is a spot next to my back deck between the deck and the central air unit that looks like it might work.  I actually set my pots of soil where I've started a few cool weather crops there while we are moving in.  The area seems pretty protected from the wind and it felt probably 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the yard.  And that was with no other protection.

I most likely won't order any seeds this year.  I have a pretty good stash that needs to get used and I'm swapping for a few others.  I may pick up some perennials at our local stores though.  Especially as the season comes to a close and they go on clearance.  By then I should have a pretty good idea of what the summer looks like at my new garden site.

I need to get a few things for my garden this year.  Some hoses mainly.  We left most of our hoses up in Montana so our renters could water.  I need to pick up some fittings to finish up building my rain barrel.  I have the barrel and my location but I need to be able to hook up a hose.

My to-do list for this month:

• Plan out vegetable beds in garden area
• Get those bed areas mulched with the hay and poop laying out in the corral area
• Get my rain barrel in position and the gutter set up for the barrel
• Get the fittings for the barrel
• Cultivate the bed on the West side of the garden fence so I can plant perennial flowers there
• Amend the soil in that bed
• Plant grass seed in front yard
• Plan out seating area by the kids' sandbox
• Plan paths through the garden- start collecting rock/flagstone to make paths
• Get more seeds started inside

Revival

Well, I haven't posted here for something like 2-3 years.  I switched over to http://lazymomgardener.wordpress.com/ for the most part.  But I think I will see about maintaining the both of the blogs.  I'm opinionated enough to maintain more than one blog right?  Okay so some of you may not know that, but you'll just have to trust me on that one.

I am about to start a new gardening adventure.  We are buying a chunk of property in Western Nebraska on the High Plains.  We hope this will be our forever place so I'd like to make sure our garden plans go well.  A few goals for this new garden:

establish perennial beds with herbs, asparagus, and rhubarb

establish an orchard with apples, plums, and maybe pears and apricots

eventually raise our own meat in addition to our own vegetables

eventually raise a few animals for the fiber as well

Right now we are in the process of making our land purchase.  We'll get moved into the house and get the basic vegetable and flower gardens planted.  Then we'll assess.  We have some travelling to do this summer so we'll hold off on getting any critters until after that trip.  This way we don't have to worry about someone to care for them.