For the last two weeks I've been slowly pulling plants out of the greenhouse and getting the huge 'jungle' bed ready to plant along with the front bed and everything else. My seedlings are growing steadily and my perennials are coming up. It wasn't until today when I suddenly stopped and looked around at plants in pots EVERYWHERE thinking 'what am I doing?' realizing that the greenhouse is only a quarter unloaded and thinking that my plan of having almost everything done in 3 weeks is really kind of unreasonable and wishing I was Samantha and could twitch my nose and everything would be done (I normally don't do run on sentences but I'm in a panic). Anyone want to visit Charleston?

It might take longer than you wanted, but this is going to be an amazing garden - and look at the wonderful trees you have to give it backbone - I can't wait to see photos of the finished planting! Bit too far for me to come to help, I'm afraid!

I agree.

Glad it is not me.
Major anxiety
It is going to be hot really soon plus all the watering.

Will be lovely tho.

Thanks Mika. I moved into this house just last year this month. That's why everything is in containers because I didn't want to put anything in the ground at the old house knowing I'd eventually move. Thankfully a lot of what I have can go into the ground. I wanted to wait a year before I really started planting, to see what the sun did and see what kind of micro climates I had in this yard. I had 5 trees taken out to give me more sun because the back yard was totally covered in trees. My biggest problem is forgetting how old I am, 66, and trying to do more than my body is capable of, or should I say willing to do.

You are a bit far away .. I lived in England for a few years, first in Abbot's Langley then in Rickmansworth.

I know how you feel. I have been moving plants out into the garden too. Remember to protect any little seedlings from birds and other wildlife. I had to start my entire annuals garden over after (I'm guessing) the birds ate all the little seedlings! I"ve been using plastic cups with the bottoms cut off for perennial seedlings out in the main garden area and that works good. They start growing out the top of the cup and then I remove it!

Rosie I love the heat and I do my best thinking whilst watering the plants.

Dee, I love your idea of how you plant your perennial seedlings .. going to start doing that for sure!

Yikes, you have a full plate! But gosh, it's going to be beautiful!!

I know I can easily get overwhelmed if I have to look at the entire project all at once, then I don't even know where to start. It helps me to work on one project (one bed?) at a time. Only take those plants for that particular bed out of the greenhouse. The rest can hang out in the greenhouse a couple more days. When you get done (or almost done) with the first bed, move on to the next one.

I had a boss once who used to say, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."

Really wise to wait a year before putting anything in the ground, Anne - I learned that lesson the hard way!! If I were you, I'd bleat, bribe, and bully family, friends and neighbours into helping with the hard work.
We live in a small village called Clifton in Oxfordshire, but have a London place as well (I much prefer the country). I've been to Abbot's Langley but only on a short stop - it seemed rather lovely.
I'll keep watching your new garden grow - what is the climate like? Will you need an irrigation system? So many questions!

Good advice Ibis - what I'm trying to do at the moment as I unload the greenhouse is clustering plants that go into the different beds together.

Mika I'm zone 8 here but since the house is brick, the southern exposure (the first picture) of the house works out to be probably zone 9 which is nice since the sun heats up the bricks in the day and the bricks release the heat at night. My Passiflora pointed that out to me - most didn't die back and my Blue Crown (at least I think that's what it is) is loaded with buds already!

It may seem overwhelming but maybe try planting one section at a time, using a hose to outline a shape for a bed perhaps and then maybe adding some compost or planting mix and taking the plants and setting them out to decide what goes where. Sort the plants by what you feel would go well together.

When I moved 5 years ago, I brought about 600 potted plants with me and started one section at a time.
http://garden.org/thread/view_...
It felt so overwhelming at first but just getting a few things in and seeing how the plants took off and filled in encouraged me to keep plugging away at it and obviously the plants were happy to finally have the root space to take off! I have maybe 20 plants still in pots from those original 600, I feel so sorry for them! But I have my goal to get them all in this year. I promised them, yes, I actually told them that, and writing it here now I really have to keep my promise!

Your garden is beautiful Suzanne! Hopefully mine will turn out as awesome! I'm slowly getting things together for the 'jungle' bed. There will be 8 sections to it and today I guess I'll start sticking pots in one of the sections as you suggested and see how it fits together and then plant in the ground. Thanks for the encouragement! Your probably right that once I do start planting it will get easier.

Here are some pictures of the area .. a friend and I cut and secured most of the timbers this past Sunday. The 2nd picture is of a corner of an old Gazebo thingy that got torn up in the wind .. each corner will have one and I'm going to plant hardy climbers on it like the Trichosanthes and Gloriosa Lily and annuals like the Snail Vine and Corkscrew Vine. I'm thinking about putting a Brugmansia in each section and for plants like the Tropical Hibiscus that won't survive in Winter I'll just bury the pots so I can take them out in fall and put them in the greenhouse. I have lots of Elephant Ears, 4 kinds of Gingers, Canna, Caladiums. I'll need to find out which ones are hardy in my zone.

Ohh, I like that idea of using the gazebo corners!! Will have to check and see if I can find something like that, maybe someone wants to get rid of one.
Good start to your project!

Thanks! I've held on to those for 15 years. I only had the gazebo for 2 weeks when a microburst twisted it beyond repair. I'll bury the corners in the ground up to the first cross piece then use a 4 ft section of rebar (2 feet in the ground) to secure it. They'll need to be strong because the Trichosanthes are heavy vines.

Yeah .. I'm a pack rat.

I've finally finished the 'jungle' bed. There is still a lot more that needs to go in there but I'm done for this year. The Gazebo Corners worked out perfectly! I decided not to put in the EE until next Spring so I can see how bushy what is in the ground comes up again. Around the middle of September I'll be taking cuttings of the 'iffy' Zone 8 plants like Abutilon. I sunk empty pots into the ground for the Tropical Hibiscus since they have to be overwintered in the greenhouse. I didn't put down a 'path' either and I may not.

Wow, looks great! You got a lot accomplished!

I did - only took all Summer and I did have some help. Now I can concentrate on the Front Bed .. I have a huge box of Caladium Bulbs arriving today from Bill at Caladiums4Less and I'll be planting them for the next week. I did a test to see if Caladiums could survive blazing hot sun and they did. I'll be using them as sort of a ground cover.

I love every single thing..forms, design and color!!

Thanks!

Beautiful, Anne! You've got your own little piece of the tropics right in your back yard. Great idea to use those gazebo corners!

Thanks .. I've been holding on to those for a very long time ... knew I'd use them some day!