Landscaping Book

I finally had time to actually browse at Sam's Club the other day (no kids!!) and I found the most amazing book for DIY landscaping. It has many different designs and layouts for a different areas with sunny and shady options. It has pictures of a front and top view, showing you how many to plant and what it will look like when it get older. It also has step by step instructions in the back for many yard projects including laying paths and pruning climbing bushes. Its geared towards the NW but I'm sure there are other version out there for other areas. My library only had the older versions, but they seem to include a lot of the same info. Check it out if you are planning your yard!!

Today I planted the impatiens my mother in law gave me for mothers day. I swear I have dreams of planning out this amazing garden and then I get out there and I just wing it, and half the time I never have a plan... so much for reading all these books. And yes I have checked out about 10 books over the past months preparing for this summer. Have i had time to read them??? No.

I really do like the landscaping one because I can see how the different plants look with each other.

I also planted some dahlia's, pansies, and some other plants I bought at a green house sale at the local high school. I really don't know much of anything about these ones, but I do know if I don't do it soon they will probably die like the alysumm I bought. That's also why I just threw my tomatoes outside. Smart gardener told me to harden them off, but I decided to be realistic that I was not going to have the time to do that. So I planted three of them outside and the rest will follow soon. I'm going to work on taking actual picture of the garden to include but I wanted to give an update. Right now, I'm planning my shady area!

My Garden

I've had it in my mind to also use this blog for gardening, I just haven't done much yet. I'm a novice when it comes to gardening. I planted a vegetable garden for the first time last year and this year will be my first year planning a landscape and flowers. I'm hoping to share my lessons learned with you and to get advice from experienced gardeners. Hopefully you won't laugh at me too much!!

For my vegetable garden this year I'm using the website smartgardener to help me plan it out. Its a great website that helps you plan according to your area, how many people are in your family and what vegetable you want to grow. It creates a to do list for you that you can check each week including when to start plants inside, when to transplant outside, what to plan directly outside, when to week, etc... Its helping me feel like I can do this even though I'm not too experienced. It also helps you plan according to the direction of the sun (height wise). I think this is one area I failed in last year. Its not a perfect website, but its pretty good for what it is!

So far I've planted my spinach and cabbage outside and I've started cauliflower, tomatoes, peppers, basil, rosemary and more cabbage inside. I have a southern facing window in my office that my plants are growing in. They seem to do REALLY well there. Here is an example of part of my to do list this week:

I also decided to purchase the upgrades to do shade, fruits and herbs. Totally worth the $10 to me! We already have strawberries (starting to see blooms!!!), raspberries, and blueberries. Over the weekend I stopped by Windmill Gardens and picked up a pink lemonade blueberry plant. I'm excited to see what it does!

My next project: Plan out a cut flower garden in my back corner. Any advice??