I have to admit… seeing all of the lush greenery back east over the last few weeks has really made me crave some quality gardening time of my own…

How’s your little/big/container/awesome garden doing right now?!? Any big June plans for it?!?

As for the wheelbarrow loads?  42 was the magic number. No wonder I’m still hurting!

After we laid down the white garden liner in our backyard, our weekend schedules got a little out of whack, and we kept delaying and delaying the purchase of the mulch for the beds. In the meantime, our tightly covered garden started growing mounds like this one above.

I thought they were just monster weeds… until I took a peek and saw that they weren’t just weeds, but rather…

…hidden bulbs!  These gorgeous calla lillies were hidden under the liner… as was…

… this beautiful lily!

Of course, there were also lots and lots of weeds…

The good news is that the water is freely flowing through the liner and getting to the soil… unlike what was happening with the old mulch and plastic liner. The bad news, is that weeds grow really really well, so we’ll have to make sure we keep the liner nice and tight so that no one else peeks through!

So this time around, instead of just buying and plopping plants, I’m trying to be a bit more purposeful in my planning. Pandesaldreamer asked the
other day where I was finding my garden plans, so I thought I’d share what I’ve come across to help me out.

First off, Better Homes and Gardens has an immense number of free online garden plans, all conveniently made as PDFs so you can print them out and take them to the store with you!

My first stop: a clay soil garden. We didn’t raise our garden beds nor dig out 4 feet of clay from our backyard, so I figured I might as well get plants that will love our soil rather than hate it.

Once I downloaded the plan & printed it out… I cross referenced all of the plants in this lovely book: the Sunset Western Garden book.

I have fond memories of my dad pulling this book out of the yellow cabinet at home and searching for information on the new plants he bought. Quite simply, if you live in a “Sunset Magazine” zone… you need to have this book, especially since most other publishers only take into account non-Western climate zones. After crossing a couple of plants off the list, I headed to the nursery to see whether they actually sold any of the plants that I wanted… and I came home with some pretty new daylilies and siberian irises.

And for the lazy gardener who just wants it all in a simple way, there’s always buying a garden! Michigan Bulb has a few pre-made gardens, but you’ll need to be extra patient for your orders and complain if any of them die to get a replacement ASAP.

And last but not least, if you’re going to order anything online, check Dave’s Garden for reviews on the sellers. There seems to be a lot of waiting time involved with the “cheaper” sites — but at least you won’t be surprised by poor service if you look here first!

Anyone else have any great garden go-to websites for planning out their garden??

I think I’m just going to turn this whole week into “garden week” — why not, since it seems to be the underlying theme to my activities around the house. Everyone else seems to be in the same spring mood as I am, as the nurseries are packed with customers and the hardware stores are running low on everything that’s on sale. I never experienced this spring fever in all my years in LA, since no one I knew had any dirt to their name, so this is lots of fun to see.

I recently spied these wonderfully colored resin pots by Southern Patio at Home Depot… all of the glory of a bright color without the cost of the ceramic glaze! They were only $12.98 (13″), $19.98 (15″) and $24.98 (18″) for all of those vibrant colors… I’m really still drooling over the raspberry and puples…

Did you know how hard it was for me to find a simple strawberry pot this weekend??? No one seems to carry these practical terracotta pots en masse, but thank goodness an old local hardware store had some sitting outside so I could stop buy and pick one up. Finding strawberry plants was just as difficult, as the weekend gardening crews were out in full force this spring weekend, nabbing up every fruit and veggie plant in sight. I finally got my hands on some plants today (in the 96 degree heat) and filled up my pot with about $10 in red berry goodness. Now all I need to do is wait for them to pop up!

I also picked up some beautifully colored perennials from Target’s SEAN CONWAY line… since I decided to go for a purple hint in our front garden. The colors were just too gorgeous to pass up, and I might just be back later this week for some more of the varieties. He definitely has me hooked on these plants… especially the prices in comparison to those at the local nurseries!