Last year I had big plans for the garden and while I got a lot done I have come to realize that building the garden of my dreams is going to be a slow and steady process with lots of little baby steps.

Lately the unseasonably warm weather has sparked my interest in gardening a bit early this year. Over the weekend I started making moves for this year’s garden, ordering blueberry bushes, and planting some early cold-weather crops. We finally pruned the apple trees (better late than never), removed a number of half dead ever green plants from the front garden and finished filling the rest of the garden beds. I was even able to talk chuck into building me another set of garden boxes for the 12 tomato plants I’m going to plant this year.

Above is the tentative vegetable garden plan (yes its in excel, I’m a nerd). It’s not set in stone yet because I’m never sure what’s going to grow well or not but I like to have an outline ready before I plant. No one wants to end up with a million beets and nothing else.

I also have yet to figure out my herb garden plans since our deck/patio design keeps changing as we actually live in the house. I’m guessing it will still have to be a raised bed of some sort because our soil is all sand and really lacking nutrients. This year will most likely just be a potted herd garden like I have had in the past. Once the deck is built I’ll have a better idea of what I can work with.

Potted Herbs 2014

Last year’s herb garden included chives, thyme, oregano, mint, rosemary, basil and parsley. This year I’d like to add lemon balm, sage, lavender, Echinacea, German chamomile, Cuban oregano, comfrey, nettle, yarrow, cilantro, tarragon, garlic chives and possibly a few others. I know that this list sounds pretty large, but many of these are perennials that I can take pieces of while my friends or family are thinning their own gardens. The only real difficulty here is then finding a place for them all, once they are planted many will just come back each year with little effort on my part. Similarly with the wild leeks, Jerusalem artichoke, horseradish, and raspberries that we will hopefully get from some family.

Some of the herbs will be planted in the flower garden, since they are flowing herbs, and the front flower gardens are in need of some help. I was able to plant some tulips and daffodils last year that have started to come up, but I will defiantly need to plant a few more perennial flowers to really fill them in. I’m going to look for some roses, and clematis first off. I also have some wild flower seed mix leftover from a never completed wedding project that I’m planning on sprinkling in some parts of the yard for color and to help the bees.

Obviously I’m super excited already about my garden so please tell me about your garden plans. I would really really love to hear more about gardens!