Lots of bulbs!

Now that winter is setting in, it's a good time to sit down and do some planning for the spring, but also to get some perennials and bulbs planted before it's too late.

I'm sure I've overdone it on the bulbs, but they're so hard to resist. Here are some of the ones I've bought and planted up till now: 10 pink mini waterperry daffodils, 10 pink trumpet daffodils, 6 rainbow parrot tulips, 6 white estafette crispa tulips, 6 white tulips with pink rims, 8 pale yellow erlicheer daffodils, 25 mixed freesias, 8 brown sugar tulips, 8 poet's daffodils, 3 giant alliums, and a mixed collection of 60 grape hyacinths and crocuses to plant in the lawn.

To plant them I first loosened the earth and then used a handy device my predecessors had left behind: a bulb planter. It digs the hole, retaining the earth, you put the bulb in, and then you press the handle together and the earth falls back down onto the bulb. I suppose all experienced gardeners are aware of these things, but I wasn't. Pretty nifty.

While transplanting things and clearing out the space for my planned farmer's garden, I've discovered a lot of already present bulbs, some already multiplied into large clusters of bulbs, but have no idea what they are. So I've separated and replanted many of these, too. My experienced gardener neighbor was able to easily identify which ones were narcissuses (i.e. daffodils or jonquils), and which ones were probably tulips. One sign that they are daffodils is that voles leave them alone, so the bulbs are perfectly intact.

In the spring I'll post pictures as the bulbs all bloom.