I love to garden but don't have much of one right now: I've only lived in the building for a few months. I need to do some fall clearing, and start thinking about plans for spring...

I have a herb garden. In the past I've had butterfly gardens, cutting gardens, veggie gardens, and moonlight gardens.

I've always wanted to plant a labyrinth-type maze of boxwood or privet, but we live on a hill, and it seems stupid. I just think it would be fabulous, especially at Halloween.

What bulbs are you planting?

I have Master Gardener certs, and advise on landscaping, with a focus on native plants and microclimates.

The most important thing you can do for bulbs is provide excellent drainage..... unless you live on the beach, add sand, then add sand.

It's time now, btw, to dig those 100$ holes for the 10$ roses that you'll plant in the spring.

I like the kind of gardening that requires little clay balls and lightbulbs instead of soil and sun.

But of course I wish it didn't have to be so.

And for the record, I don't have a garden.

We have roses in the front yard and a tomato garden in containers out back, which kind of took over the patio this year.

I garden and grow bonsai but have had a very hard time with it since I moved to a new town that gets WAAAAY hotter during the days. Fried a couple trees this last summer which made me very sad.

I would love to build some raised beds to garden in. It would keep my little boy AND the hound out of my vegetables!

And I've had a succulent garden growing in a large pot for the last six or seven years.

Oooo, maybe that's what I'll do this weekend, get that fall garden started. Thanks!

I grew a beautiful tomato plant on my deck this summer. The monsoons came and it rotted before I realized what was happening. I got a few good tomatoes off it, but most of it was trashed.

I don't have a garden myself (never have) but I help my mum with her gardens. Her front garden (nearest the house) is all roses (plus one rhodi) including a climbing rose on an arbor, underplanted with bulbs (mostly tulips). In the garden along the street it's a mishmash of stuff (lavender, rosemary, Joe Pye weed and other, mostly local, stuff I can't remember). Along the side of her front yard there's a lot of small trees/big bushes (Japanese maple, butterfly bush, wedding somethingorother, etc.). Along the back fence in her back yard it's a mishmash (on purpose - kinda crazy English border thingie) of lots of local stuff (Joe Pye weed again, lupins, Shasta daisies, rosemary, dahlias, tons of stuff I can't remember).

My husband says I don't garden so much as "plant." I'm all gung-ho in the spring, but by midsummer, I get overwhelmed.

We're planning on doing some major landscaping projects in the spring, so be forewarned reflecked!

Pictures of my garden. I have a 12' x 16' vegetable garden, a round flower garden in the front, a rose/herb/odd miscellaney overly big border at the back, a sunken bathtub with giant goldfish & a ton of mint and evil evil honeysuckle here there and everywhere. It's all wildly overgrown again, since as always, I started out with the best of intentions in the spring and gave up somewhere in the middle of August & let the morning glories take over. We did pretty much eat out of the garden all summer though. Still, next year, no gourds in the vegetable garden, more mulch, and I'm going to spray the roses, organic gardening be damned. Next year it will be better. As I say every year.

You know, last year I planted bulbs really late, like right around Thanksgiving, and I had great daffodils and tulips this spring, so I'm waiting again to plant this year. And I'm going to dig up a bunch more space around the front of the house for them.

Howsa bout some good fall garden ideas, guys! Am I too late to start here in the Pacific NW?

Coming from suburban New York, I've always concentrated on summer and fall vegetables, but now that I live in Southern California and its amazing climate, my little mind has been blown wide open by the idea of planting stuff all year long and not having to worry about freezing temperatures!

Amazingly, my small fenced-in backyard currently has:
- 1 pomegranate tree (unknown variety; 2 out of 5 fruits ripe at the moment)
- 1 dwarf Bearss lime tree (almost ripe)
- 1 Anna apple tree (out of season)
- 4 types of tomato plants (the San Diego is doing the best, by far)
- clumps of strawberries (experiencing a small fall bloom right now, but all claimed by the birds, bugs, and mice, unfortunately)
- 1 big Kyoto pepper plant (mild raw or dried, long and skinny, in season)
- 3 jalapeno pepper plants (in season; made homemade poppers three weeks ago and damn near burned my face off)
- 1 bell pepper plant (variegated, in season)
- 1 small "firecracker" pepper plant (supposedly very hot; have been too scared to taste them)
- 1 poblano pepper plant (yum)
- 1 long-lived artichoke plant (just starting to grow back now; should be ready late next spring)
- 2 grape vines (one red, one white, both of which I want to rip out)
- 1 almost-spent basil plant (raided for homemade pesto a month ago)

Winter vegetables I'm starting from seed right now, in pots alongside my house (all of them from heirloom open-pollinated seed companies, primarily seedsavers.org):
- Red Nantes carrots
- about 4 different types of lettuce (mix of looseleaf and head)
- cabbage
- onions (first time growing them!)
(The idea of "winter vegetables" still seems like such an oxymoron to me. But this is a climate where the roses start blooming in late February...)

Veggies and fruits I plan on planting in the next year:
- 1 Meyer lemon tree (will cross-pollinate with my back-wall neighbor's lemon tree)
- sweet potatoes
- garlic (mmmm)
- small herb garden (cilantro, rosemary, thyme, etc.)

...and that's just the food stuff! I'm still adjusting to the idea that I can plant flowers here. The house came with a small rose garden (mix of floribundas and hybrid teas) and I'm still bewildered what to do with them. I was recently taught how to properly prune them, though; I hope I don't muff that up, because they're very pretty.

Flowers I'm looking at for next year: a butterfly bush (buddleia) out front and more hummingbird-friendly and low-water-usage plants. Which probably means penstemons up the wazoo.

May I recommend High Country Gardens for fellow west coast / mountain / desert gardeners? They have a list of what plants will do well in the Pacific NW, Specklet.

Hey mygoth, I remember this!

Oh yeah - it turned out to be a pumpkin. Which, of course, rotted away long before Halloween. ;-)

What bulbs are you planting?

Tulips (many different species tulips, a few fancier tulips as well), fall crocus, spring crocus, muscari, hyacinths, fritillaria (including some of the "crown jewel" types which will likely be way too gaudy, but oh well), daffodils, winter aconite, camassia, snowdrops. Can't remember anything else at the moment.

We have 22 Roses of various type. A dozen clematis. Hundreds of bulbs for spring and summer. Around 600 spring bulbs under the lawn for color before the grass starts growing. Several grape vines. Pear tree. Each year we plant a lot of annuals and Sweet peas, herbs, tomatoes and cucumbers. The cucs are done but the tomatoes are still going. This year I dug out an over grown rock garden and relocated a dozen roses and built a stone path. It's a lot of work but it clears my head after to much time working in the IT world.

I need to talk my mum into a small veggie garden next year. She retired this September so she'll have the time to work on it. Plus she'll need the motivation to get her arse out of bed.

Hmm. Raised bed? That'll help since she has arthritis and can't bend down very easily.