August 21, 2004

Bulbs!

It is almost Fall and almost time to think about planting bulbs for next year. I know I actually already have a lot, but we added a big flower bed in the backyard and I know some of my tulips, at least, will be missing, because a few disappear every year.

So, when I got a catalog in the mail the other day from Brecks with a $20 coupon on the front -- as in if you order less than $20 they charge you nothing, I was definitely pleased. My neighbor gets a lot of her bulbs from them, so I figured it was worth a try.

The hard part was choosing and I would have loved to order just about everything in the catalog, but I did narrow down my selections, though not to under $20. I finally got some pink daffodils (something I'd never seen before), some drumstick allium and some fancy looking tulips . I'm excited for them to get here sometime in September and even more excited to see how they do next Spring.

The next step is going to my next door neighbor's and dividing all the daffodils he said I could have. They'll help fill in the new backyard bed nicely.

Comments

My first visit to the new place. Very nice - I like the extra ability to display comments without having to open up the post comments box. I wouldn't worry so much about archives. They're nice to have but blogs are so focused on the current and now (like the internet) that it's rare for others to look them up. If you get in the habit of saving a web page that shows all of your posts for a month, then you'll have them for your own historical (or hysterical) purposes.

My wife got tired of seeing more weeds than she could put up with in one small garden plot in the front yard. Today she dug it all up (I think she'll just let it go to grass) and came up with over 400 bulbs. I don't know what she will do with them all, and it's a shame I can't toss some your way.

Are they any good in soup, or maybe on a skewer for the grill after you marinate them?

Posted by: MarcV at August 21, 2004 09:41 PM

Four hundred bulbs! That's most impressive. My favorite weed control is a good ground cover in my flower beds (mostly vinca minor and creeping phlox). I still have some weeds, but that crowds out a lot of them.

Posted by: Jordana at August 21, 2004 10:57 PM

I have uncontrollable weed problems too. My question is, if you find a groud cover robust enough to choke out weeds, how do you keep it from choking out the stuff you want? I love my morning glories and my wild sweet peas, but they don't play well with others (though they haven't choked out my weeds, either).

Posted by: Lenise at August 23, 2004 08:50 AM

Both the phlox and the vinca are pretty "grow-through-able" which means they don't choke out every weed, but they do take up space and shade the ground making some weeds less inclined to start anything. Plus, if you have a bunch of green stuff already covering the flowerbed, the weeds aren't as noticeable. At least that's what I tell myself, and I like groundcover a lot better than mulch in general.

Vinca is pretty agressive at spreading though, so I only have it beds where I can contain it.

Posted by: Jordana at August 23, 2004 09:26 AM

I would love to plant bulbs in my space but I have no idea how to go about it. My mom should be here in September, maybe she can help? I am sadly remiss in the plants department despite growing up the daughter of an avid and skilled gardener. Two, in fact, although my dad is into veggies and my mom flowers. Oh, well. :) Perhaps a little of it came through?

Posted by: susanna at August 23, 2004 09:41 AM

Bulbs, especially daffodils and allium (and other relatives of the onion) that critters don't like to eat, are the easiest gardening you can do. You stick them in the ground in the fall, preferably with a little bonemeal or bulb booster, though they usually do fine without, and wait for them to show up in the Spring. Then as long as you don't cut off the greenry after the flowers die, most of them will be back for a long, long time.

I sometimes wish I could garden exclusively with bulbs.

Posted by: Jordana at August 23, 2004 09:53 AM

Daffodils. We hateses them.

Posted by: LittleA at August 23, 2004 12:57 PM

Why?

Posted by: Jordana at August 23, 2004 01:01 PM

Why? Probably has something to do with the 7+ years we lived on bulb farms - growing daffodils.

FYI, when you cut them to display, be careful not to get the juice from the stem on your bare hands/arms. Some folks are allergic and it causes them to break out in a rash somewhat similar to poison oak or ivy. I tell ya, the things you learn without really trying...

Oh, and how come I have to keep entering my stuff for comments? It doesn't seem to be creating a cookie.

Must be a MT thing - I have the same problem at Susanna's place.

Posted by: LittleA at August 23, 2004 04:28 PM

Oh yes, I had forgotten about your bulb raising days. Did you ever raise any pink ones?

And fortunately for me, I must not be allergic because I've picked 'em plenty of times barehanded. I'll pass that along to others though.

Posted by: Jordana at August 23, 2004 04:44 PM

No, no pink ones. We did raise some yellow iris though.

Posted by: LittleA at August 23, 2004 05:06 PM

Oh, that was not a nice thing to do, Jordana. I was trying to control my irrational bulb planting this year but now the order is being prepared! And it's not hard to end up with 400 bulbs (especially daffodils). When I divided an overgrown patch, I was getting about 30 new bulbs for each one I planted. Maybe I should have started a bulb farm instead of a tree farm. The payback would be quicker.

Posted by: Earth Girl at August 23, 2004 11:14 PM

I hope you'll tell us what you ordered, Earth Girl.

I know I'll wind up buying a few things at Lowes later on. This is only the first wave.

Posted by: Jordana at August 24, 2004 05:05 PM