Planting the bulbs

This week I’m planting the bulbs in two garden spots. In keeping with ten ways to enjoy your garden more, I’m planting the bulbs where I can see them from the front door and in the garden border outside the kitchen where I write and record the Gardenangelists podcast with Carol Michel. I did an Instagram video about the one spot today explaining how I plant.

Too many bulbs as usual.

I have boxes and boxes of bulbs to plant. To make it easier, I’ll use a l ong bulb auger for my 20v DeWalt cordless drill for planting among the trees where I’ve never planted before. That’s where I’m placing some of the new daffodils.

I’ll probably just dig the holes in the kitchen border with my trowel because the area is sandy, and I already have many daffodils I don’t want to disturb. Below is how I planted the bulbs last year.

Over time, I’ve come to believe you should plant your most highly-valued plants, often those that cost a pretty penny, where you will see them every day. If you work outside your home, that means planting bulbs where you can see them from a window in your office or forcing some to enjoy over the holidays and into the new year.

I do both. I work from home, and my bulb concentration is near the driveway, so I see them coming and going and outside the kitchen.

This year, I also decided to plant daffodils in a small area among some trees. Daffodils look great beneath trees, and Lord knows I have a lot of trees. I will be able to see them as I drive into our circular driveway and from the front door. This is all good.

Thanksgiving for all of our blessings.

The weather is supposed to be beautiful and sunny all week, with temperatures in the 50s. Since I asked our children to bring their favorite dishes to our Thanksgiving dinner, I don’t need to do as much prep work as usual. I’m in charge of only the smoked turkey–which I bought for Bill because he doesn’t like roast turkey–and the dressing. This is our first year without any of our parents, and I decided we could change things up.

The kids are bringing macaroni and cheese, Brennan’s amazing mashed potatoes, which have bacon, among other things, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, ham, asparagus, rolls, pumpkin pie, lemon squares, and maybe even shrimp. It’s just a giant carb fest. As for me, I’ll be fine if I have my mother’s cornbread dressing, which I’ve adapted to be gluten-free. The recipe is halfway down the post.

If you must eat gluten-free, I have a couple of other posts too.

The point of all the Thanksgiving talk is I have time to plant the bulbs, and since this is the perfect week, I’m going to do it.

Cut back a few perennials.

First, I’ll need to cut back a few of the perennials in the kitchen border to figure out where we need the tulips. I’ll then mix the bulbs in Jacqueline van der Kloet’s style. Basically, you get a wheelbarrow and just mix stuff together and toss them on the ground. If you don’t remove some of the dead perennial foliage first, you’ll lose bulbs.

Oh deer!

However, this process always makes my hound dog want to dig up the fresh dirt, so I’m going to sprinkle Nature’s Mace and try it. If you just want to keep deer away, you can use Plantskydd, which works great unless you have a dog that enjoys blood meal. I do have a resident deer who crosses our property now. I see him/her when I’m out walking, and he/she lives on my neighbor’s property. So far, this deer doesn’t seem very interested in my garden. I credit that to the type of garden plants I grow, and my dog who is on patrol.

There are no easy answers for deer and other animals that want to eat our plants. We all just do the best we can. It’s the same thing with the holidays. I hope your spirits are cheerful and that you have all you need to get outside this week. Enjoy the sunshine while it lasts, and Happy Thanksgiving.