Spring Dreaming!

Spring is in the air - or at least it is in South Western British Columbia!  Today I noticed there are four little crocus flowers in my garden.   That's a sign if you ask me.   This got me to thinking about the garden and how I plan to approach it this year.  

I want to expand my vegetable garden to run it along the fence - like a side bed in the yard.   I will put in veggies and maybe some flowers to make it pretty. Although things like scarlett runner beans, peas, strawberries and more are all pretty in their own right - and their flowers look great.   I've also noticed that some salad greens are pretty, too, so I would like to plant them all together so they look nice as they get big enough for me to eat them.

I didn't cut down and dig over the beds this past fall.  I kept seeing the birds landing in the tall stalks, so I left them all.  It turns out this was a good thing, as I know where all the plants I like are.  I'm going to move some things around, and this makes it easy.   It also  provided a haven for little birds and bugs over the winter.  I'm hoping this will prove to be a benefit for my garden this year.  

I want a garden that's low maintenance, so I'll be laying the drip hoses early. This way my plants will grow up over them.  This is a good way to water, keeping it low on the ground where it's needed.   And I've let go of some plants that didn't suit the spots, which should make care easier, too.  And our front yard now has very little planting.  We have very large trees under which we will put rock, and in the open area we have river rock and a few dwarf trees and a couple peonies.  All of the rest we pulled as it was full of weeds and so on.  Now it looks nice, has some beautiful plants and the extra visuals will come in a few large pots of flowers.  Simple, pretty and low maintenance.  Most of it requires watering only if it's dry for a very long period as it's well established- that's a good thing.

Do you have spring planting dreams?  Ideas for great veggie gardens (the zero mile diet!) or fantastic flowers?