Our First Place

Time for Spring Bulbs

It's Fall!

I even changed the ribbon on my girl froggy!

Yup, time for spring bulbs. During the Fall is when you should be planting your bulbs for the Spring. It's also time for you to put down any compost so it's nice and rotted for the spring. We saved leaves from last Fall. If you love Peonies as I do, this is also the time to plant your bulbs or plants. Muscari, Crocus and Daffodils were on Martha Stewart's "Must Have" Spring bulb list. They are so pretty and they are always seen in her Weddings and Living magazines. The Anemone looked like an interesting flower and would add a different texture and color to the flower garden.

I started with this side of the house by weeding and pulling out the Pansies from the Spring. Pansies are annuals, which die and need to be replanted each year. After all that hard work, perennials are certainly far more worth the investment and time. They are more costly, but they multiply each year and only require a little maintenance during the spring and fall. Mums are also perennials and bloom in the Fall.

A little planning goes a long way. A first time gardener can easily get overwhelmed with all the things involved in gardening. Don't overwhelm yourself and buy lots of tools and flowers before you're ready. Plan your garden out and start with a small area. On a piece of paper, I quickly sketched my plan to remember where I planted bulbs. This way I won't run the risk of digging them up by accident during the spring. I mixed up the colors. Plant the taller flowers against the wall and the shortest ones along the border. I left room to fill more flowers in next year.

Now that it's cool out, we're working on shaping the area around the house, so that has more street appeal. Using a weed wacker/edger we "drew" the curve out. Then using a shovel, we dug the dirt up and shaped our mound. We thought it best to start now before the ground gets hard and it will be less work we have to do in the Spring. In the spring, we will add fresh dirt and peat moss.

My Plan: The idea is to have pretty Spring flowers that I can enjoy throughout the spring. The Crocus, Daffodil and Muscari bloom at different times during the spring. The Peony will bloom in the summer. The Mums and Dahlias bloom in the Fall. After the spring when all the flowers have bloomed, the green still remains and makes for a pretty landscape while I concentrate on the vegetables during the summer. When the vegetables begin to slow down, it will be time for the Fall flowers to bloom. Then I'll work on maintenance and prepping the soil again in the Fall for the Spring.

Dahlias and Calla Lilies: I am on the hunt for Calla lilies. We saw some beautiful wild ones in California and want to plant one to remind us of our trip. I have to order them from a catalog to get the ones I want. I went to Home Depot this weekend to see what was available. It seems I missed my opportunity to pick up the Peonies and Dahlias on sale. They can be found at 50% off in July usually during "off season". Store them in a cool, dark place until it's time to plant.

Breck's is a nice website where you can order your bulbs from Holland. I am thinking about ordering the English Bluebells, Waterlily Dahlias, and Lavender Mountain Lilies.

Now we just have to wait until Spring to see how I did!