The “South” section of Mid- America covers a vast territory with many related climatic conditions which govern activities of gardeners. Generally speaking, there is about a two weeks’ difference in time of activities between the northern and southern limits of the area, and readers should take note of this time factor.

Garden planning, or wishing: Nothing provides more pleasant pastime than just pouring over the catalogs that always seem to come at a time to cheer up the recipient of Christmas bills. Certainly the weather most of this month is fit only for armchair gardening.

Begin to make a plan for the garden a study of all the plant materials and their relationship to the house. In this day of high labor costs and varied family activities, do not overplant the garden. Budget your expenditures for items needed or desired most. Aware of the time element involved in the upkeep, many DIY’ers are planning gardens that “thrive on neglect.”

Planting: This is the month when heavy planting of trees and shrubs is done in the southern part of of the south and gradually continues northward as the weather opens up. Warm days provide an opportunity to dig in the soil and plant.

As part of the renovation nation we bought a my parents home built in the 1950′s and it had a landscaping problem. The parents wanted something different. To keep the grass and weeds from creeping in from the lawn they decided to put the flowers in stone and concrete beds.

This would give a bed above lawn level and required less upkeep. The first step they took was to build a wooden form the desired length, height and width. The beds were raised about five inches above lawn level. A second form was built three inches smaller to fit inside the first form, and in which the concrete is poured. After the forms were built they used the outside form as a guide to dig a trench about six or seven inches deep by three wide. This trench acted as a form for the foundation and was below the frost line. The forms were then secured above the trench and ready to pour the concrete.

Ready-mixed concrete was used but mixed most of the beds using one part cement to two parts sand and a little lime which gives the beds a white appearance when set.