Friday, October 14, 2016

Daffodil Day


Today I planted 150 bulbs in about 40 holes.  With fertilizer.
We did 120 of Breck's early to mid-season mix  and 30 of the late mix.  The bulbs were big and beautiful this year and there were a lot of them!  I sorted them out on the kitchen counter and it looked like a big job.  Two hours later when I still had bulbs in my pail, I knew I was right.  It WAS a big job,

Each hole got three to five bulbs and there were a few singles tucked here and there.  You know we have a neighbor who is an engineer - once he was planting a whole bed full of tulip bulbs and he asked me:  "how do you keep track of where you planted the last bulb?"  Well, there are two approaches to that problem.  Either you can set out all your bulbs where you want them and then dig a hole under each one or:  duhn duhn duhhhnnn.... wait to cover them up............  
.......Duh? 

Before I went out I browsed through a couple years of spring photos familiarizing myself with  the location of bulbs already planted, which areas needed a better balance of color, and which areas only had early of late color.
And while I was perusing the photos I kept noticing photos of...



Beautiful fluffy mulch and sharp edges!


Planting beds full of Spring promise.


Color!


Fresh veggies.

Today was a beautiful day but everything is looking like old age.  Mulch is thread bare and dried out.  Dried leaves are strewn everywhere.  What foliage is left uncut is a little brown and frost burnt.  It would be wonderful to be in March with a whole planting season ahead.


I have finished all my fall potting.  My office window is full of huge, hip high spikes from the combination pots.  The cold frame is full of vinca vine.  We have such a bad deer problem here that the only way to enjoy tulips is to pot them in containers and keep them out of harms way.  Last year I planted them in big planters in the vegetable garden but I wasn't ready to commit to that again this year so I potted up a tray full of gallon pots which are in the garden now but will be taken in either to the chicken coop or the cold frame to keep them from freezing too solid,

2 comments:

  1. A big garden job that will soon be so worth the work and looks so beautiful! Cant wait to see them all in bloom. I have to plant tulips in containers as well because we have too many wild animals that dig them up where we live. Every things looks so fresh and pretty in your gardens

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    1. And in a few years when the bulbs have multiplied it will be even better. Like they say "to plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow". It is hard to get a photo to catch the breadth of the display in the spring. I've planted enough variety at this point that I have a changing variety for weeks and weeks and we enjoy them so much.

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