Garden Planning is Hard Work

I'm worn out from thinking, sketching, looking out the window, reading seed packets, thinking some more... you get the idea.  I'm trying to turn the garden thoughts in my head into an actual plan.  Last weekend I lost myself in the world of the Territorial Seeds website, for the first time ever, and on Sunday morning I had Julie review my selections.  After a few additions, we submitted the order, and the magical package arrived Thursday afternoon!

At the bottom of the pile you can see that they thoughtfully included a hard copy catalog, so I can peruse from the comfort of my living room chair.  They think of everything!

After pulling out the various packets, I began having what I've dubbed Gardener's Panic.  It's akin to Buyer's Remorse, but without any actual remorse.  It's just an overwhelming feeling of, "Oh god, what have I done?  Where am I going to plant all of these things?  When will I plant them?  What will I start inside and what will I direct sow?"  But this weekend I've begun tackling those questions head on, so I don't sink into an abyss of overwhelmed indecision.  I always feel better once I actually do something tangible rather than just rolling the questions and options over and over and over in my brain tumbler.  

So, what did we get?  I hear you thinking the question.  Here goes:

Seeds (mostly organic and/or heirloom):

Arcadia broccoli

Christmas basil

Black plum tomato

Boothby's blonde cucumbers

Carrots (tossed in by Territorial as a bonus)

Chives

Green ice lettuce

Green zebra tomato

Grow the Best Asparagus (book)

Guardsman onion (scallion style)

Ellagance purple lavender

Lady lavender

Lemon cucumber

Midnight ruffles lettuce

Royal burgundy bean

Silvery fir tree tomato

Creeping thyme

Live plants, shipping in warmer weather:

Lapins cherry tree

Purple passion asparagus crowns (25) 

Royalty raspberry plants (5)

Are you sharing my panic yet?  Have no fear, I've sketched out the start of a plan.  Five (maybe six) 3x8 raised beds along the side of the house, the raspberry bushes along the back wall, lavender along the front walk, some lettuce and broccoli under the living room window, cherry tree near the southern property line, behind the raised beds.  I'm also thinking of a raised bed island type garden in the front lawn for the lupine seeds I picked up last summer.  

With all these raised beds, I surfed around to price what it might cost to get some actual dirt with which to fill these yet-to-be-constructed beds, and after calculating the cubic yardage I'll likely require, found a place in the next town that seems reasonable, and will deliver what appears to be a nice loam-compost blend.  Julie asked if they would deliver it right into the raised beds, and when I told her that they would dump it in the driveway and then I'd spend the weekend hauling it to the beds in the wheelbarrow, her face alternated between horror and hysterics, but she finally settled on, "Oh, yuck!"

Still deciding what to do on the other side of the house and driveway.  One of last year's first-attempt gardens in the northeast corner is being handed over to the strawberries, which I transplanted from their containers in the fall.  It's also partial shade, so we'll see what happens there.  The other garden, right behind it, is being returned to lawn since it's what started my first property dispute with my neighbor, who feels that a corner of the garden is over the never-actually-marked property line.  

Julie's pushing for the flower garden around the mailbox, but that just seems so done to me.   Of course we'll have lots of container herbs on the back deck, for easy access from the kitchen, but the deck only gets a few hours of sun in the late morning and early afternoon.  I'm also thinking of either some large containers or small raised beds of herbs scattered alongside the house and driveway, and/or in little garden islands here and there.  Anything to reduce the lawn!  

 

Clearly I have more to ponder.