grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Planting Tulip Bulbs (a tad bit late)

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Planting Tulips

We finally planted tulips bulbs this week. I wanted to get them into their winter beds before Christmas, but life slipped in and provided other distractions. For a few weeks, our box of bulbs traveled around in the trunk of John’s car where at least they stayed nice and cool. Yes, it’s a tad bit late to plant tulips, but I think they will be okay. The ten day forecast looks mighty cold. Cold will be a good thing for our bulbs now (hopefully) dozing in the soil.

The seasons seem confused. I suppose our bulbs may be too.

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Planting Bulbs, Planting Hope

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Digging in the dirt is a favorite pastime of mine, but lately I’ve had no time to do it. Correction, I hadn’t made the time to do it. And I’d been moaning about how when spring arrives our yard will be so sad without our sprightly pink and orange tulip blossoms. Last summer after they bloomed, I dug them up and stored them in the garage. Nicely labeled and all. Last week, I saw them staring at me when I hoisted the tubs of Christmas decorations from the shelf.

Planting Bulbs, Planting Hope

Finally, I stopped moaning and started digging. Planting bulbs, planting hope. It felt good. So good that the next day, my whole body ached. I had to rake five bags of leaves to even get to the dirt.Continue Reading

This is how it starts, the happiness of spring. ???

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Spring has sprung in my garden and I’m feeling the happiness of spring. I worried about my tulips when our temperature plunged to a rude 25 degrees a few days ago, but bulbs are hardy and they were unfazed. Last night we had wicked weather and I spent some time in my safe place. I felt a little silly sitting in the closet with my purse but with “TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY” warnings blasting through my phone and television and tornado sirens wailing in the neighborhood, I decided I’d feel even sillier when I woke up dead.

Lucy and Annabelle wanted nothing to do with holing up in the closet. I see regular tornado drills in our future.

Luckily, we survived. Our flowers survived. I pray everyone else did because it seemed to be a severe storm. Maybe it blew the crazy March winds out of here…

So back to spring.

Check out this daffodil. What a gorgeous surprise. It bloomed from a bag of bulbs labeled mixed yellow varieties.

daffodil

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