"Muddy Fun"

When we went to Giant Eagle today I saw some bulbs for sale.  The pictures of the spring flowers on the boxes got my attention and on impulse bought four boxes:  Hyacinths, Snow Crocuses, Early Snow Glories and Grecian Windflowers.  I thought planting some bulbs would the perfect activity for a rainy Saturday.  I should have checked how deep to plant them though because some were only 3" deep but others were 8".  The box instructions were very simple:  dig (plant in area with good drainage & full sun to partial shade), drop (place bulbs in soil, pointy side up and water), done. 

Some bulbs were easy to tell the point; however, for the Grecian Windflowers it was just a guess.  They were basically kind of flat shaped like a triangle so I am not sure if I placed those in right our not.  I mixed them in with the Early Snow Glories just in case I goofed because the Snow Glories were obvious.  Since the ground was already wet and it is supposed to rain all day, I did not water them.  Hopefully we will have some pretty flowers in the spring!

I was glad I thought to put some old shoes on because by the fence along the drive we had to dig down 8" with the shovel and it was VERY muddy.  I also wore two hats, one to keep me warm and the other a cap to keep the rain off my glasses and face.  It wasn't very comfortable, but it worked!  The temperature was near 50 degrees so wasn't too bad.

Do you plant any bulbs?  We have daffodils that come back every year and a few crocus that pop up yet.

Share this:

Time To Plant Our Flowers!

We don't need as many flowers this year because the bare circle in our front yard from when we removed our evergreen tree has shrunk so much that we planted grass in it this year. The only flowers we had to get were a few for the back and flower boxes and containers for the front porch. Gerard lets me pick them out and he does the planting while I take pictures and blog.

I love our purple phlox that comes back every spring. Unfortunately, some weeds have a stronghold in the one place and I can't get them out!  I tried thinning it out one year and transplanting some of it but it didn't work.  We planted our extra flowers in front of the fence at the end where the phlox stopped.

I decided to go with begonias this year. They are usually sturdy and last long into the year. We got a variety of colors because Gerard likes the different colors.












Here is a couple of our planters that are finished. Moe's garden is in the backyard and we'll show you that picture in Spunky Doodle's post tomorrow.

Of course, our dog, Abby, was the supervisor. She loves being outside with Gerard.

Gerard was so excited about the great weather and getting the flowers in that he also sprayed Weed-b-gon to get rid of the dandelions in our yard (hope it doesn't kill off all the grass and clover too or we'll have plain dirt). Then, he went to attack some of the weeds behind the garage!

Good job, Gerard!  

Hope you had as beautiful a weekend as we did!  Have you planted your flowers yet?  What kind to you plant?

Flower Planting Day--Yea!

Each year Gerard and I look forward to planting flowers in our yard. Before we were married, he always used to have great roses and pretty flowers, one of the best yards in his neighborhood! Planting flowers was new to me. This is something that I got into since knowing Gerard.

We like getting our flowers from Richardson's Greenhouse which is only about 15 minutes from our house. Not only do they have beautiful flowers and a huge selection, the they are very nice people who run it and they have a greeter--a friendly calico cat! He's about 16 years old now and lets the customers pet him. He usually just sits or lays near the cash register. That's another reason we like to go there.

Here's Gerard with our loaded wagon. We are getting Coletus, purple & white petunias, a geranium for the front porch and top soil. (Getting the dirt ready is Gerard's job too.) Then hanging plants are gorgeous, but since we took off our awning when we had the new roof put on, we have nowhere to hang one. We plan to buy the mulch from WalMart and do that tomorrow.

Gerard and I both enjoy doing this together, but he works much faster than I. He had the swans and the flower box all done by the time I came out after saying "hello" to our cats first and having some yogurt and a drink of water. He doesn't fuss around! I, of course, have final approval. Gerard put the coletus in the swan pots and petunias and coletus in the porch flower box. I told it should all be petunias in there, so he replaced the Coletus with petunias.

We both worked on planting the Coletus and Petunias in the flower bed in the front yard. I dig the holes and he plants the flowers. That way, we can work well together--he lets me do the arranging and he's the one who gets dirty.

We also planted some begonias and Coletus in the backyard. The begonias are near the house in our sunniest spot (called Dickie Bird's Garden because our bird is buried there) and the Coletus is by our Miracle Moe cat's grave in the back corner.

To hear a planting tip from Gerard, view this very short video.