Spring gardening starts in November with the planting of Spring bulbs. On the south coast you can wait till the very end of the bulb buying season and pick them up for cheap, with plenty of time to get them into the ground. I have various bulb beds that come up every year but this year I decided to add some to our wine barrel planters in the front and back yard. Nothing to extravagant. (I believe Martha uses up to 100 bulbs.) Just enough for a splash of colour in early spring. My memory is just short enough that I forget what I planted so it's a surprise even for me.
The other part of Spring that I really like is all the free plants. I got about 80% of our plants without shelling out a dime. Some were here in some form when we bought the house and others were sourced from fellow gardeners. By splitting up the perennials at this time of year I have additional plants for gifts, trade or for filling in the blank spots. This year I've got about a dozen strawberry bushes, a new set of raspberries and at least four hostas. I've still got a few plants that have probably gotten a bit big so I may split them up as well.
I've now prepped all the perennial beds. This is the first year I haven't had to do something major to them like moving plants around or building retaining walls around them. The garden on the right is at our front door and is much nicer than the overgrown junipers that were there previously. I've still got quite a few hardscaping tasks this year including a new fence on at least one side, a new concrete planter in the front yard and perhaps a pond where the shed used to be. All time and money permitting of course.
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