I checked on my plants this weekend, fertilizing with bulb food, a little later than I usually do, and giving them all some Epsom salt. Here they are, around my SIL's garden.

I did have to repot my 2 yellow tree peonies into the garden bags, they had been planted in the same large plastic pot, that still wasn't draining properly. The roots were still firm, so hopefully, I won't lose them. One of them has a leaf, and the other pips were firm.

Wow Annette! That is great. It shows how dedicated you are to your lovely plants.

I'm hoping that we don't get any late freezes!!

Thanks LG!

I agree with you and hope that we don't get any late freezes. However, this weather has been so unpredictable, we'll just have to deal with whatever comes our way. This year, I won't be able to protect the plants, so we'll see how they fare.

Hope you will have a mild winter, Annette! Though those pots look very well sheltered from the elements.

I hope so too Karen, but with enough cold so that the peonies thrive this year.

BTW, did you every put any plants in the growing bags? The plants that I have in them seem to be doing better than the plants in plastic pots.

Annette, I did put Alice Harding TP from Adelman in a grow bag and then into a plastic pot. I have it on a plant dolly and is currently sitting outside on my driveway against the wall for warmth and shelter. It has not been consistently cold enough for me to wheel it inside my garage. But I am dealing with only one tree whereas you have many to handle and care for. The digging and planting them in pots and bags must be a lot of work. I don't know how you do it. Can I ask you how did you go about digging up your tree peonies? Did you rent a tractor or tool to dig them up?

Hi Karen, I watered around the all of the plants really well before digging them out with a pitch fork. I dug around the around the rootball of the tree peonies, and took as much soil as I could, so that I didn't disturb the roots. I was amazed that I didn't break any of the TP roots. As I stated above, I did repot the 2 noid yellow tree peonies last weekend, and before repotting, I did clean off the rootballs, so that I could put them in fresh soil.

The Itohs were more diffcult to dig out, and some of them came up in pieces, that I'll spread around the new garden.

Unbelievably, the clematis were more difficult to dig out than any of the peonies.

I hope that your Alice Harding does well in the growing bag. My plants seem to be happy in them.

Thanks to our very wet winter, there has not been a lot of progression with our new home being built. They've finally poured the foundation, now we can see where the garages, front porch, and back patios are going to be.

The garages and front porch, with a partial view of the tree line.


View from the backyard, that gives me a general idea of how big the side yards are going to be.


This view is from the left side of where the future drive way will be, and I labeled the pin, that shows where the back corner of the lot ends. There's a lot of room for putting in garden beds🤗!


View from the back to that same pin.


The back patios.


The tree line behind the home, I'm thrilled to not have any neighbors close behind us! Call me antisocial, I want to be one with my plants when I'm gardening😂!

Wow, your house is going to be huge! That tree line behind your backyard will be an awesome backdrop for your garden. Looks like there will also be alot of beds for all kinds of flowers. It is a wonderful lot, Annette! Congrats!

It's looking great, Annette!
Thanks for the update.
I see your neighbor's lawn is completely dormant. What kind of lawn will you put in? The people before me sowed Bermuda over fescue, and that Bermuda has been the bane of my gardening life!!

Isn't grass considered a "weed" for the real gardener.

Thanks Karen and LG!

Karen, I'm looking forward to the privacy that the tree line will provide, and I'm thrilled about the amount of space that I'll have to plant my gardens.

LG, many lawns here in GA are Bermuda grass. I've created 3 garden beds with landscape fabric, soil conditioner, composted manure, and topsoil, right on top of it, topped with pine straw mulch, without any major problems. Periodically, the grass would grow into the edges of the garden bed, and it's easily removed. I've never had fescue grass.

I agree Tracey, grass is truly a "weed" to all of us😁!

That is very interesting to me, Annette. I used landscape fabric in my beds when I first moved in, and the Bermuda grew through any tiny hole and jumped in and grew through the pine bark mulch on top!! I gave up and ripped it all out.

Turf type fescue ( Not KY 31) is very beautiful, tough, and stays green all year for me. I keep over-sowing my lawn with it and pray for the death of the Bermuda grass.

And yes, grass is a weed if it's in your beds!!

You are going to have so much room for a ginormous, beautiful garden, Annette! I think you should just skip sodding and have the whole thing gardens—who wants to mow grass, anyway???!!!

garden is much more beautiful than grass and Annette can prove it!

I wish my DH would let me skip the planting of the sod. That would make me incredibly happy!

Guess I'll just have to remove it as I go along. The builder is already aware that I need areas in which to garden, and I'll discuss closer to the closing where those areas should be.

It's official, as of April 17th, I'll be homeless😂!

Our current home went under contract this weekend, YAY, and we have no idea of when the new house will be ready.

I'm so thankful that I was able to dig up most of my beloved plants, and I can't wait to play in the dirt again, planting in my new garden.

I've spent these miserable winter days thinking about plant combinations and how I want to do the garden, and I'm so confused!🤯

Should I do a rainbow garden planting all similar colors together, or should I mix it up?🤔.

I would love some input about how you all would go about planting a graden that's a blank slate. Any ideas are welcome!

Congratulations, Karen! And I wish you move to the new house as soon as possible! Regarding color mixing, I like patches of pure colors combined in a pattern but I end up mixing everything in my own garden! And it looks nice also As for peonies I plant contrasting varieties: white with red, although have a whole bed of soft pinks. I guess you cannot go wrong with peonies

My advice for Annette would be concentrating on hardscape first. Without really spending quality time thinking how it is going to look in 5-15 years and planning all those paths/fountains/gazebo/etc., etc. you are going to pull out all your planting one or two years later. I found that plans change and mature the longer you are staying in the place. I have different one now and it will involve moving some of plants at one point + different garden idea + different paths.
Make sure there is access and nothing is planted where you will regret it later if your plans include some heavy machinery. I would say take your time, keep your existing plants for the time being, but do not buy too much until you are 100% sure about your hardscape plan and know your terrain/soil/moisture/sun well.

Anya and Alex, thank you both for your excellent advice!

I have been visiting the home site at different times of the day, and taking pictures, to get an idea of of where the sunlight is throughout the day.

We've already decide on a wooden privacy fence around the perimeter, and flagstone steps going down from the driveway, into the backyard.

I currently have a U shaped garden bed along our current fence, and a 50 ft bed along a walkway in our back garden. I'm considering instead of the 2 large beds, creating islands of plantings.

I think I've been watching too many English gardening shows, and getting inspired to try something different.