Is anyone else excited for Spring? I can't wait! I'm giddy with the thought of it!! I know, I know, your thinking Jackie, spring isn't for another six months. And your right, but this is the time of year where you must begin preparing your spring blooming garden and it's such a tease. It's a tease because you don't get to see the benefit of your labor for another six months! But let me tell you that if there is ever a season that you would want beautiful, colorful blooming flowers in your yard, it would be spring. Not only is planting spring blooming bulbs one of the easiest things to do, but seeing those buds peek out as the last of the snow is melting in the early days of spring will have your heart skipping a beat. Because one, you did it; you planted and willed them to grow. Two it means that winter is finally over and life does go on and three for the next month and half your yard will be filled with colorful and beautiful flowers.
Last year was the first year I planted spring blooming bulbs. I was skeptical about the whole thing, thinking the process was too easy and done too far in advance for anything to actually bloom the following spring. So let me tell you how surprised and excited I was to have a beautiful display of tulips, crocus and daffodils in my yard come spring.
So this year I decided to add to my bulb garden. Oh I forgot to mention the other wonderful part about bulbs, they come back every year! So last year I planted assorted crocus around the surrounding area of the large maple tree in my yard (see below image of some purple crocus from last spring). This year I wanted to make more of an impact so I planted 200 bulbs closer to the base of the tree.
The bulbs aren't large. 200 crocus bulbs fit in my basket just fine and since you want to plant them close together for more impact, 200 bulbs can be used up very quickly.
One of the things I was confused about last year, was which side of the bulb needed to be planted upwards. You can get confused easily as both sides sort of look like a root in there own way. I first thought the small protrusion coming out of one end was the root, but actually this is the plant itself and the other side is in fact the root. The bulb should be planted with root towards the ground and the bud pointing towards the sky. Depending on the type of bulb, you will bury them different depths.
I also planted bulbs in two pots that I will have displayed on my front steps come spring. In these pots I planted a combination of "Cheerfulness" White Gardenia Daffodils and Blue Muscari. The daffodils are a petite variety that have a gardenia like fragrance. Muscari is hard to describe, I actually just googled it in order to give you a decent description. So this is what I found on wikipedia "The genus Muscari, commonly and collectively known as grape hyacinths, are a group of perennial plants native to Eurasia that produce spikes of dense, most commonly blue, urn-shaped flowers resembling bunches of grapes in the spring." I thought the combination of blue against the white would be striking.
So in order to get the look of the Muscari growing in between the Daffodils, I first put the daffodil bulbs about 4" down in the pot. On top of that I put about 3" of dirt and then placed my Mucari bulbs in the dirt, pushing them down slightly and scattering them about. Next I put the last inch of dirt on top of the bulbs. I will keep these pots in my garage wrapped in a tarp till around March where I will place them back outside. You have to remember that in a pot the bulbs will not get the warmth from the ground and the bulbs can become damaged from freezing. I plan on recreating this entire procedure to my window boxes once my fall flowers are spent.
While I was tending the garden, Eva and the hubby where having fun with the leaves. I'm laughing cause I'm pretty sure my husband will say that what he was doing with the leaves was not fun. He spent 4 hours cleaning up the yard and today it looks like he never touched it. A blanket of leaves covers the ground once again. Eva though, was definitely having fun.
See that pile of leaves at his feet? Times that by 20 piles and that is how many leaves we had and have again on the yard.
I had to share this picture and in both color and black and white. I loved the light in the picture and the fact that she's staring away at some mysterious figure outside the photo. I also couldn't decide whether I liked it in color or black and white, so I figured I would share both.
And this is the tree that I love to hate and hate to love. It's beauty is astounding especially this time of year with the changing colors of the leaves, but the havoc it reeks on our yard, our backs, and our minds is enough to make me despise it.
Our yard, because of all the leaves, our backs from all the back breaking yard work we do to clean up after it and our minds when a storm blow through and we think the tree will take out our house with one loud crash. But when all is still and the sun is peering through it's tallest limbs, all I see and feel is peace and beauty in it's presence. Oh and a photo opportunity!
