I’ve been working on getting all my spring bulbs planted over the past few days and even though I planted 80 tulips in front of the boxwood hedge, I still feel like it wasn’t enough. Back at our old place I probably planted over 5,000 bulbs during the 8 years we lived there, so having to start over with only a couple hundred bulbs is a little depressing.
But I keep reminding myself I planted bulbs EVERY FALL at the last place, not all at once, and it will be okay if my place doesn’t look like a flower bomb went off the first spring we are here.
We have this lamppost. But oddly enough there isn’t a lamp. Everyone else on the street has a lamppost with a light fixture on it, but not us. And to top it off, our lamppost area is totally ugly if you ask me.
The area is planted with an ultra ugly leaning pine tree that drops 10 million needles a day, a bunch of yellow day lilies {barf} and some other sort of crawling plant . All of which I would love to remove at some point.
But I just don’t have the time right now so I simply cleaned up the area and planted a lovely color coordinated assortment of purple iris, tulips and anemones.
I also grossly underestimated how many daffodil bulbs I’ll need to plant the giant garden bed in front of our house. {And yes, all those random shrubs will be relocated soon}.
Something tells me 260 bulbs won’t be enough to fill the entire area with daffodils. But I’m already over my garden budget for this month and can’t buy anymore, no matter how good the deal is. So now I’m wondering if I should do a mass planting of daffodils somewhere else, {maybe along a garden path} or just do a bunch of little groupings all over the place.
I don’t know what to do. My brain is turning to mush. I want this remodel to be over with so I can go back to a normal schedule and actually feel like I am getting something done each day.
~Mavis
Diane says
I don’t plant as many bulbs as I would like because I can’t get deep enough. It’s hard to tell from your photos, but it doesn’t look like you go very deep. I thought tulips needed 8″ deep? It’s all I can do to plant crocus a few inches deep. I hit cedar roots in a lot of my yard.
I love day lilies! I just planted several Bonanza and American Revolution, but they aren’t the regular yellow ones. They go great in my low water front yard. I have lavender (Hilcote), golden oregano, Tuscan Blue lavender, some rosemary and two specially ordered from a rock rose nursery, rock roses. Oh, and a bunch of iris along the fence by the neighbors driveway.
Dale says
I saw the Home Depot deal on your blog and ran down Saturday. I bought a bunch of Daffodils Hyacinthus and Tulips. Wow! I went home and started redoing my front bed. It is about 85 feet long and 18 inches wide. First I dough out everything down about 8 inches and sifted everything through a screen on my trailer. I separated out all the existing Daffodils, Bare Naked Ladies, Crocus and Peonies’. Then I put about 2 inches of the sifted dirt back in and set the new bulbs. I made it about 30 feet the first day and ran out of new bulbs so the next day I finished the bed using about half of the Daffodil bulbs I had separated out. I can’t wait for spring. I’ve been putting that bed off for a couple of years now and it feels good to finally get it done. Thanks for the heads up on the deal and getting me motivated. The rest of the bulbs and the peonies’ I’m giving to some ladies at work. The excess dirt went down to the garden for topping off raised beds come spring.
Sara says
I would actually enjoy that big island bed with the shrubs if you just wanted to add a bunch of perennials and maybe another shrub or two. And I vote for several large clumps of daffodils in it. Then the perennial foliage could cover up the dying daffs. You could even plant the perennials in the spring when you know exactly where you need them to cover the daffs. Ahhh, new beds. So much fun to be had with the planning and planting. Let us all live vicariously through you…
Susan says
It is 30 degrees and SNOWING here in SW Washington where I live. We have about 1/2″ and it is still coming down! It’s been cold here (around 30-ish) for a few days. No school today.
I baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies and have been rotating the chicken water every so often. One of my “girls” is molting (as in mostly naked) and has to be miserable!!
No yard work for me!! Luckily we spent last Friday raking maple leaves from the yard, sidewalk and road and DH did one last mowing.
Mavis Butterfield says
I wish I had snow!!
Renay says
Mavis, you sound beat and bushed. If you don’t have oodles of bulbs next spring, so what? Get done what you can and don’t worry about the rest. Being in the middle of a remodel is totally absorbing and totally exhausting. Embrace the chaos and it will be over soon and then you can worry about Christmas! HAHAHAHAHA
Randi says
I vote for random acts of blossoms.
The squirrels ‘helped’ me last year and moved some of my daffs. It was a fun surprise to see bursts of yellow all over the yard.
D&Y says
Oh, don’t diss those daylilies. I love ’em: I love eating them. I quick sauté unopened buds in butter; bread and deepfry the opened flowers; sometimes I even dig up and eat the roots. I just realized I have more of them in my vegetable garden than elsewhere. Give them a chance.
Mavis Butterfield says
You can eat them? I had no idea.
Ruth says
The crawling plant by your lamp post may be candy tuft. I like candy tuft because it is really hardy. In the spring it blooms white usually, some other shades available, white most common. It spreads, but it is green and tough. Good for the growing season. Look up iberis inwiki for a good picture. Also, I would plant you daffodills in clumps this fall. you can always re arrange them later. with those random shrubs, it will look better, maybe one on the right and one on the left of the bush , but behind on the mound i think that would look nice for the spring… It’s a start. Also, when we moved into our home I didn’t know what was there. in the spring I was surprised by the bulbs and the violets, etc! Enjoy this new adventure and just wait, you may find some nice surprises!
Mavis Butterfield says
The day lilies are going, but I think I’ll wait and see in the spring to see if it is candy tuft. We had a bunch of it planted at our last house and I loved it.
Jane says
Omg! I know exactly how you feel! We moved into a house a couple months ago and all the work to get the house and garden in shape is crazy! I just spent the entire weekend digging up a bed full of about 200 day lillies that hadn’t been taken care of in years (and consequently developed a deep hatred of them in the process). I replanted the beds with crocuses, tulips, and anemones in shades of purple, pink, and white. I’m hoping I put enough in (and can keep the rabbits out in the spring). Also am planning to put in other perennials to fill the gaps in the spring and create beds that have something blooming throughout most of the year. Good luck and happy planting!