I'm Thrilled!

Yes, really.  When I was late planting tulips and hyacinths in wire cages I made from 1/2" wire and buried 10" deep in 2' square holes a but late (Dec-Jan), I didn't know what to expect.  Same for 200 daffodils that don't need cages, so I just used a small auger to make 10" holes.  I'm not a bulb expert.  I know they need chilling temperatures, but I wasn't sure if that was for the bulbs to just grow or for flowers to develop.

Well, now I know part of the answer.  There are tulips and daffodils emerging from the ground all over.  I saw the first tulips a week ago, then there were 15, then 26, then 46, and today I counted 51 tulips.  And I suddenly realized today that one type of the 2 daffodil varieties are poking up all over too.  I assume the other daffodils and the hyacinths are later-emerging and will appear in a couple weeks.  If some are growing, the others probably will too. 

Not anything to take a picture of yet.  An inch tall tulip leaf is rather insignificant, after all.  But I get to watch more appear every day, so when they get large enough in one group, I'll post pics.

I planted the tulips 8 or 9 to a cage; the hyacinths 7 or 8 (they didn't divide up among the number of cages perfectly). 

But even if they don't bloom this year (but have vigorous plants), it will be a success.  Because they WILL bloom next year if not this one.  I was mostly afraid they would just rot, being too warm this first shortened growth season.

In a few weeks, I will be transplanting purple coneflowers and daylilies there too, between the cages of spring bulbs.  Maybe add some Mums for Fall color

That was in just one of the 3 new planting areas I worked on last Fall after I had that annoying english ivy, poison ivy, and wild grape covered ridge removed in September.

The larger of the 3 got spread with some "meadow-flower" mix back in November.  It certainly is covered with "green", but I have no idea if anything good is growing there.  It could be all weeds (and I can tell that some are), but there may be some nice self-seeding annuals and some flowering perennials there.  I am encouraged because it is much greener than the last circle where I planted nothing yet. 

So the difference between those 2 patches SHOULD be the meadow seeds I scatterred.  I probably won't be able to tell much about that until mid summer.  And if it turns out to be nothing but weeds, I will cover it in black plastic to smother the weeds and try again next Fall.  And in fact, I may just grow 100s of individual plants and do the planting more deliberately.  But I'll hope for success this year.  A 20"x15' patch of natural meadow would be very nice.

And not just nice to look at.  The beneficial insects, bees, and butterflies would love it.  So would the cats!  Not just because they would have tall plants to sneak around in, the think undisturbed growth would attract all the voles in the yard for them to hunt.

Speaking of bees, I saw my first honeybees of the year moving among to blooming hyacinths near the house.  My yard is mostly organic (I sometimes have to get lethal with the poison ivy that invades from my neighbors' yards).  But that's not where the bees and butterflies are attracted. 

The 3rd circle is for the lysimachia firecracker.   I love the purple foliage and yellow starry flowers, but it is too spreading for my main flowerbed.  So I'm moving them to an edged circle I can mow around easily to contain them.  They are related to Loosestrife, but not quite as invasive (being a domesticated hybrid, I assume).  But kept to themselves, they are lovely all season long, grow thickly enough to shade out all weeds, and look impressive in masses.  They don't seem to have any serious pests or diseases either. 

So with the 3 patches, I will have a naturalistic meadow, a patch of 2' tall purple plants, and a patch with spring bulbs and summer/fall plants.  It might be a thing of wonderful constant changes though the seasons or a visually-discordant disaster!

You will all find out about as fast as I do.  The good thing is that plants can be moved or replaced or expanded.  

Weather

I have to admit that I appreciate the delayed Winter here.  On the other hand, the bad forecasts are driving me crazy.

I look at The Weather Channel website FOR MY ZIPCODE (which should be pretty specific) and it says 0% chance of precipitation for 5 days.  And so I walk outside to plant more Spring Bulbs (daffodils now) and heavy mist is falling.  Which means the soil is muddy.  ARGHH!

Well, at least I have gotten 90% of the tulips and hyacinths planted in vole/squirrel proof wire cages.  There are a few leftovers of each and I can plant them in pots to be enclosed in the garden area with hopes of getting blooms and replanting them next Spring.

I still have daffodils to plant, but they don't need cages (being toxic to the varmints).  I can plant THOSE using my 12" drill auger.  As soon as the rain stops...

And with just drilling holes and dropping bulbs in, the daffs go in fast.  Which is why I left them for last.  At least I'm done with the digging of 14'X16" holes 12" deep!

I always try to do too much.  LOL!  Well, better than trying to do too little.

I have a lot of crocus bulbs, but those are going in some large shallow plastic bins to grow in Spring and then be replanted in May along a border.

It didn't seem like THIS much work when I ordered all the bulbs last Fall!  I'm bad at estimating the work my projects require.  But it will be worth it in Spring and for many Springs to come.   I don't think I will be planting any more Spring bulbs for many years to come.

Tomorrow is supposed to rain all day.  Good.  I have some serious inside cleaning to do!

More Bulb Planting Fun

The Project That Never Ends continues...  WHAT was I thinking when I ordered 350 tulips/hyacinths/daffodils to plant?  Well, I suppose because I had new space and I decided in September to landscape rather than just plant grass.  And its not the bulbs, its the making of and the digging for all the wire cages to protect them from the Evil Squirrels and Nasty Voles.

Just planted in the ground, the squirrels dig them up from above and the voles eat them from below.  I'm hoping the wire cages keep them safe and blooming for years.  But I never expected it would be so much work!

I've bored you with the process before, so I won't do that again.  But even to do a few cages takes time.  It's the weather...

In one sense, I have been very lucky with the weather.  The ground is usually frozen hard by mid November and it has stayed oddly warm this year.  So I have had more time to plant them.  On the other hand, it has rained some  almost every day for 6 weeks.  Not that we are flooded; the rain is a soft drizzle.  But that's enough to make the soil slippery and muddy.  And you don't want to dig in wet soil because it packs down.  And at the end of a day working in wet soil, I would look like The Swamp Thing!

So I have a large 36'x30' sheet of plastic I cover the area with every day.  OK, the bottom 4' are not covered, but that section was the first I planted so I don't have to step in it.

So every day when it is not raining, I take all the stones off some of the edges of the plastic, peel it back for where I want to plant, and get 3 more bulb cages (holding 9 bulbs each) set in.  3 cages take about 90 minutes and after that I'm tired.  Well, each hole has to be 14"x16" and 12" deep.  And the dug up soil has to go somewhere other than on top of the previous plantings (I have styrofoam plates marking the planted spots and I can't cover THEM).

So putting the dug-up soil gets trickier the more cages I plant.  I have all the tulips planted (20 cages) and I am on the hyacinths at the outer edge on one side.  That side (of the 30' edged circle) is the easier to dig in (sandier soil vs clayier soil), so I favor that area for digging.

The other side of the circle will be for daffodils, more about those when I plant them, but they are FAR easier to plant...

So I wanted to start on the hyacinths yesserday.  The forecast looked good.  The Weather Channel website for my town said no rain until 6 pm.  Hurray!  I got started at 2:30.  It took 15 minutes to get the ools and bulbs outside and peel the plastic sheeting off.  So I started to dig the first hole.

And then it started to rain!  Misty at first but then more steadily...  Dammit!  I waited a few minutes as the rain got heavier.  But I gave up and re-covered the planting site with the plastic and put all the tools away. 

Fortunately, I also needed to go grocery-shopping, so off I went with rain falling on the windshield.  For 2 minutes...

Then it stopped completely.  For the rest of daylight.  ARGHHH!

Well, at least I got the grocery-shopping done...

Tulip Planting Concerns

I have realized that all my tulip bulb planting efforts MIGHT be a waste of time.  Spring-Flowering bulbs like tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils (et al) need "chill time".  In other words, they have to get cold enough for long enough to flower properly. 

Tulips require temperatures below 50F to begin to chill.  The colder they are, the less time they need.   This has been an unusually warm December here.  We have set a couple of record high temps, but that wouldn't be too much of a problem if it also got cold sometimes.

We have only had 3 nights below 32F here this month and are not forecast to have another until JANUARY.  This is almost beyond bizarre!  The average frist hard freeze here is usually in late October and the ground usually freezes a foot down for the Winter by early December.

I sure appreciate the warmish weather for the ability to keep working outside, but what is likely to happen next Spring is that I will have tulip plants, but no flowers.  After all this work, that would be a hard blow.  At least (as I read on most sites), that won't harm the plants permanently, just prevent blooms next year.

At minimum, tulips need 8-10 weeks of freezing ground.  And since that isn't likely to happen until early January, I am going to need a late Winter keeping the ground really cold into mid-March.  And THAT isn't the usual pattern here.

And I still have 8 cages of tulips and 8 cages of hyacinths to plant!  And 150 daffodils, but they don't need cages (being toxic to voles and squirrels) so I can just use my drill auger to plant them individually.  And from past experience, I know I CAN plant 150 daffodils that way in 2 days easily.

I think I will take the hyacinths and plant them in some large plastic tubs I have.  The voles can't get into the tubs and I'll cover the tops with wire mesh to keep the squirrels out.  I can harvest the bulbs in May to plant them properly

These are probably the last tulips and hyacinths I will plant.  The Winters are getting too short for them to survive.  I shouldn't have planted these, but I got all excited when I had an excavator remove the 6' high ridge in the backyard and thought of things I could plant there instead of grass to mow.  I love to see almost anything more than grass...

And I still have 200 crocus bulbs to plant!  I kind of got in over my head this year.  But better to try to much and stay busy, then to try too little and look back with regret at wasted time now, next year.

But I also have to say...  I've lived in this spot for 30 years.  I've seen the changes in the seasons as only a gardener/landscaper can.  The ground used to be frozen solid by the start of December.  Now it happens at the start of January (this isn't the first year of warmish weather at Solstice around here).

Anyone who thinks the climate isn't generally warming isn't a gardener! 

Another Moderately Busy Day

I'm not busy every day.  Some days I just get up late (a privilege of singlehood and retirement) make lunch, putter, make dinner, and watch a few science/nature DVDs.  But I usually TRY to do something useful each day.  Some days just don't work!

I had yesterday (Thursday) all planned out.  I would get up early (for me) at 10 am, use the riding lawn mower to tow the 5'x8' hauling trailer to the street, hook it up to the car, drive the car to the UPS center to drop off 2 boxes, drive the car (filled with empty boxes) to the recycling center, stop at the nursery on the way back to get 2 bucket-loader loads on 1/2 soil 1/2 compost (premixed is great there), stop by the grocery store where the double rows of parking spaces allow for a car and trailer, and get home in time to let the cats out.

Hah!  I stayed up til dawn, slept til 1 pm, and ate a fast lunch lunch.  Then the riding lawn mower wouldn't start.  I hadn't used it since late September.  The marine battery I keep in the shed was dead too.  So I went back to the house for the Jump-N-Carry JNC660 Jump Starter I bought a couple months ago to help with the car.  That worked!  

So I drove the riding mower (hereafter just "mower") around front to hook up to the trailer to move it.  Oops, forgot the key ring.  Back inside to get that.  Unlocked the trailer lock, hooked up the mower.  It some time to get the mower trailer ball directly under the trailer hitch.  The trailer was on a slope and held in place by wheel chocks so I couldn't move the trailer up or down hill.  And trying to use the brake lock thge the mower is in position is tricky.  It wants to settle back a few inches...

But I got the trailer and mower connected and brought the trailer to the street so I could get the SUV attached.  Hmm, I need a rake to spread the soil/compost mix level...  Another 200' trip back to the shed and 200' back to the trailer.  Oh, and I need a tarp to cover the load so it doesn't all blow away.  I thought I had the in the car, but it was a small one that wouldn't cover the entire trailer.  Off in search of a larger tarp I go!  

Didn't find the one I wanted (later discovered the one I wanted was covering plywood on the deck) but found one "almost" large enough.  Put that in the car.  Checked to make sure I had the bungee cord tie-downs in the car.  Nope!  Searched for the bungee cords.  In garage, in shed, in workshop...  No luck.  Re-checked each area.  Nope!

I wasn't at the point of checking the refrigerator, but close.  I use them for a lot of purposes, so I sat down and pictured them.  Couple of minutes later, I said "AHA!" and walked right to them.  I had a small basket of odds and ends left over from another project, and there they were!  OK, into the car they went!

Darn, I don't have my grocery list!  I made a list of all my usual items on a spreadsheet by category and with some blank lines after each for unusual items (and printed off a few hundred copies a few years ago).  I don't really need it for most things.  I know what fresh vegetables and meats I need, but its the odd items like ketchup or Crisco or minced horseradish I'll forget without the list.  Plus, going by memory means I end up with 3 jars of fancy hot gardeniera veggies in the pantry...

So I got the list.  Went to the SUV.  Noticed the sun was setting.  That means it is rush hour traffic, plus I don't want to do all these errands in the dark!

ARGGGHHH!  

So I set my attention to dinner and today (Friday).  I got up at 9 am, showerd etc, made a quick cheese/bacon omelet and toast, ate fast, and got going.  Hurray, I was on the road  at 11...

The UPS drop-off was easy, though it is annoying to stand in the place typing information into the computer to create a shipping label.  I have my computer mouse buttons reversed for comfort, so using the regular arrangement is awkward.  And their mouse pads are sticky so (between the two) it is hard to get the cursor on the spots they want.  And they are Windows while I am Mac, so some routine shortcuts don't work.  

But the label was made and printed eventually.  I brought my 2 boxes to the UPS clerk.  One box was a return of a crockpot.  My 35 year old one finally died, so I ordered a replacement.  I THOUGHT I was ordering the same size but with a removeable inset.  OOPS! It was huge (for me).  5 quarts is a LOT bigger than I thought.  Well, I have 5 gallon buckets I use frequently, and 1/4 that size seemed right.  Nope!  Apparently, I had a 2 quart crockpot before.  So I had a return from that with a prepaid pre-printed label.

It was the kitchen knife return that took all the work.  I bought a set of really great Wusthof-Trident kitchen knives from a Going-Out-Of Business store 10 years ago.  But I added a few individually.  One had a piece of the handle just fall off while I was cutting lettuce.  Wusthof said to return it to then VERY securely packaged.  

I can understand THAT!  Knives defy most packaging.  So I found a flat box 4" longer than the knife.  I cut pieces from another box to hold the knife.  The handle has two narrow spots, so I punched holes in one cardboard piece to match those and used twist ties to hold the handle in place leaving 2" all around the knife.  Then I placed the 2nd cardboard piece on top of the 1st and used duct tape all around it.  That knife AIN'T moving.

Then I put the broken handle piece in a sandwich bag (with a separate label inside the bag explaining what it was) and tucked it in between the cardboards and taped THAT in place.  Then I wrapped the whole thing in small bubble-wrap.  I added a copy of all the emails between Wusthof and I (with pictures) into the box after writing my name, phone number, email address on the copy.

When I was done, was was still some movement of the cardboard knife-holder in the box so I packed the edges equally around with styrofoam peanuts.  When I was done, an earthquake could not have made the contents shift around in the box.  I am nothing if not thorough!

So I got away from UPS in only 20 minutes.  On my way to get rid of the recyclable cardboard boxes...  

Naturally, there was a person ahead of me.  She didn't seem to have the slightest idea how recycling worked.  She had her trunk open and the workers were picking through the contents.  She had electronics, boxes, garbage, metal, and some non-recyclable junk in there.  Hey, if it is her first time trying to recycle, I'm patient.

So I decided to just carry my boxes from a car-length further away.  But one of the guys there took my boxes as I approached the cardboard compactor and said "She comes here every week with weird stuff and makes us take some stuff we really shouldn't accept for free" (actual garbage costs money to dispose of), "but if we complain we get in trouble".

I thanked the guy who helped me empty the boxes from the SUV, and commiserated with him about some of the strange "customers" they get.  Apparently some people try really hard to get their actual garbage "recycled" for free when there is a dumspter right there saying  "$1 per bag of garbage".  And they show up in luxury cars!

People are weird!

If you have read THIS far, you get an A+.

So from the recycling center, I went to the landscaping/nursery at the end of the same street.  I needed a lot of good soil to fill the cages of the Tulip and Hyacinth bulbs I am planting in an edged circle in the newly-leveled back yard.  I asked the "Loading Manager" if they still had the 1/2 topsoil 1/2 compost mix.  I told him I wanted 2 bucketloads and set my covering tarp so that the dumped mix would hold the front of the tarp in place, then went to the office to pay for it.

I went back out with the receipt and waved it to the bucket-loader guy.  He dumped one, then the 2nd.  I was spreading the load out evenly when I noticed he was waving at me.  Apparwntly, He felt the 2nd load had been a bit light.  He brought a 3rd!  Cool!

He didn't hang around like he was wanting a tip, so I gave him a big smile and a slight salute!  And he parked his machine and left.  

So I went to use the bungee cords to hold down the tarp over the soil in the trailer.  Imagine my surprise when I realized I had set the tarp sideways.  So I pulled it out from under the soil/compost mix and set it the right direction.  I tucked the front edge under the soil as best I could, and used the bungee cords to lock down the sides and back.

I hadn't driven 1/2 miles when the front came loose. so I pulled over to the side of the road to redo the front.  I'm glad I had an extra container of bungee cords in the car.  It seemed (and was) secure. But I saw some birdfeathers on the road (some unfortunate crow), and put several in the exposed (uncovered) back of the trailer where the "wrong" tarp didn't reach.  A little experiment on how much of the purschased soil/compost mix I might lose driving home.

The feathers were still there when I got home, so I guess I didn't lose any soil mix on the way home.  Aerodynamics are weird!

So I stopped at the Safeway grocery store.  They have double row parking spaces that can fit a car and trailer.  Did my shopping; won't bore you with that.  But I needed stamps and they sell them at no markup.  I had written on my shopping list "Don't Forget Stamps".  I forgot the stamps.  

So I got home, unhooked the trailer, covered the exposed part of the soil/compost mix with another tarp. Got inside at 1PM, opened the deck door and a few windows (it was 70F) and let the cats out.  They LOVED it.

Next time, the first planting of new Tulips and Hyacinths using the new-built cages and 1/2 soil 1/2 compost mix...

And if you have read THIS farther, you get an A++

Mark

Tulip and Hyacinth Bulb Cages

One of the biggest problems for Tulip and Hyacinth bulbs around here are the voles.  They are evil!  I planted 5 circles of 8 Tulip bulbs some years ago and in Spring, I discovered holes dug out from the surface and sides to every single bulb.  There were bulb fragments left.

Daffodils are no problem; they seem toxic to voles.

But I love Tulips and Hyacinths. 

So I am making wire cages to keep the little voles bastards out. 

I designed an efficient form to use 36" wide hardware mesh wire.  The dark line in the middle shows where 2 shapes are cut.

I cut many to size. ..

I figured out how to fold them into cages...

They are easily opened for adding bulbs when buried in the ground.

I still have time to plant the bulbs.  The ground won't freeze until January here.  Building the cages is labor-intensive.  I have 14 cages constructed and want 14 more for the 25' diameter edged circle I set in.

But I don't have much time left.  I'm sure gonna be busy next week, LOL!