Gardening - The Planning Stages!

This time of the year is when I get anxious to start my outside projects. The sun is out, so I go outside an access the backyard and realize the ground is still frozen. Or I take a walk in the front yard to see if the crocus are coming up and see that the ground is also frozen in the front yard. So I decided to stay indoors at my desk with my seed catalogs and start the planning stage.

Every year I try to get a little more growing time out of our soil, my Husband keeps telling me I only have approx. a 60 day growing time, if you know anything about growing time that isn't very long. With the price of produce so high and not to mention the ideal situation of "growing your own":) I want to make the most out of my garden this year.


With that said while the vegetables are very important to the garden so are the flowers:) I am trying to plant perennials more, and since I live in the high desert I am using a lot of wild flowers mixes that just come up in random areas of the yard. For the past two years I have had the most beautiful cosmos come up in the driveway, everyone knows to drive around them and what ever you do don't back over them!

Raised bed in corner of house, and Juniper Berry!

To start with I have a raised bed that is about 5x12 feet and has its own watering system , it gets the morning sun and is sheltered by the house and is shaded most the afternoon. I have tried strawberries there - no good! When we moved into the house it was their rose garden (for the deer). I am not a rose garden person, it takes to much work. I like the natural looking plants not ones that have to be trimmed all the time to look pretty. So with the 3 rose bushes left, they are going bye-bye this year. But I don't know what to put in this spot. Does anyone out there have any ideas, IE, Amanda? I would like to plant a vegetable since I am able to cover it with cloth to keep the deer out. Maybe there is a cloth that keeps the heat in also and keeps the deer out, I will have to look into that.