Got My Bulbs In!

Hooray, the bulbs are in! With the help of my new friend here, I was able to finish digging up and turning over the side yard. It took a loooong time! I started last Friday and finished just the turning over part yesterday. I was also able to put in the peat moss and lime as well as a generous serving of bulb food. If there's any soil that needs amending, it's this stuff. It's like acidic, black talcum powder. Actually, I don't even think it qualifies as soil yet. I think it's still just dirt. I'll put a couple hundred pounds of manure and another sixty of peat moss in it this spring and then maaaybe we'll start calling it soil.

Anyway, today was planting day! I had read a weather report saying it was going to rain all day but when I got up this morning, the sun was out. So, as soon as I got back from dropping off Little Nephew at school, I got to work. The first thing I wanted to deal with was the downspouts. I didn't want them dumping all this water into my newly dug bed and having runnels of it down into the neighbors driveway. Also, for years, I've been trying to think of fun landscape things to do with all the slate that I keep pulling out of the yard. I swear, our yard grows this stuff! So, here is the answer:

I just wanted something sort of rustic but that also gave the water the right idea where to run. Then it was time to get the bulbs in. I actually bought about another $80 worth of bulbs when I was out on Tuesday and it is a good thing I did. It's a very big bed and I needed them all.

I really splurged getting all kinds of fancy tulips, irises and crocuses. I even got some frittillaria and some snow drops. If they all come up, we should have a real show here come spring.

Well, I finished just in time because the sky had started to look like this and the rain was starting to come down. It's great that it's raining today because otherwise I would have had to water in the bulbs. There's no hose on this side of the house so I would have been walking back and forth around the house with the watering can until it was done. Hooray for Mother Nature!