Tuesday, March 24, 2009

We Have Lift Off

Crocus No yarn related content ahead.
My bulbs have started coming up.
Here are some lame little crocuses that have bloomed in the corner flower bed under the rhododendron.
Bulbs in the other flower beds have broken the surface, but haven't made this kind of progress. Although I think some daffodils will bloom any day now.
I'm even starting to see leaves breaking the surface on the hill in the driveway.

400 Strong
I say these five little crocus are lame because I'm sure I've planted around 400 bulbs in the four years we've been in the house, so I feel I should have much more color by now.
Also, I really should have gotten closer when I took the picture, but I was in my pajamas and only has on slipper socks, so I didn't want to walk in the dirt.
The bulb situation is really out of control, but I'm still not satisfied.
The first year in the house, Costco had reasonably priced bags of 100 daffodil bulbs. My mom and I decided to split a bag, giving us 50 bulbs each. Well, when we went to the store there weren't any more of those bags, so we ended up buying a variety of smaller bags.
After we'd divided them up, we each had upwards of 100 bulbs. We looked at each other and said, "How the frak did that happen?"
Now, I know 100 bulbs sounds like a lot. And it was a lot when I was planting the damn things. But when they bloomed, it seemed sparce.
So the next year I did it again.

Seasonal
The problem is, it turns out all the flowers I really like, and therefore keep buying/planting, are early spring bloomers—daffodils, tulips, hyacinth, paperwhites, crocus. So they all bloom at once and then I've got nothing for the rest of the summer.
Resulting in an effort these last two years to find late spring and summer blooms, but they are more money for fewer bulbs. So my beds are still pretty sparce.
And I've only got the three small beds and the hill out front, so I'm really planting bulbs on top of bulbs.
It's getting ugly.
What I really need is some hardy, fast growing ground cover.
Hubby commented once that usually when people have an interest in something (like say, gardening) they also usually have some skill at it.
He wasn't trying to be insulting. He was just commenting on my plant killing skills in general. It's not my fault our soil sucks.

Furry Little Flower Killer
Not that any of my efforts matter.baru pink nose
Once those poor daffodils do bloom, they won't have long to live.
Let's see, it was the second year in the house, which would have been Baru's first spring, because we got him the summer we moved into the house.
Which would also have been the first time any of the bulbs I had planted would have bloomed, since they would have gone into the ground autumn 2005.
One day I was on the back porch and noticed some recently bloomed daffodils were gone.
Not withered like they had died, just gone.
Which was odd, since we don't get deer in our yard (there are only two recorded sightings and it will be five years in the house in April), and I didn't think deer ate daffodils anyway.
As I was contemplating what could have happened to my flowers, Baru was running laps in the yard.
The next time he passed the flower bed, and without breaking stride, he turned his head and decapitated a daffodil.
After a few strides, he spit it out.
His lack of hesitation proves this was something he was accustomed to doing.
I've also seen him going out of his way to munch on tulips, which he also spits out.
And there is no way I can stop him.
This is, of course, so wrong on so many levels.
In addition to concerns for Baru's health, there is the annoyance of loosing my blooms, and then also having to let the plain leaves finish their growing cycle so the bulbs have enough energy to come back the following year.
So Baru can entertain himself.

2 comments:

  1. Oh, I feel your pain! it is not the ct that beheads our flowers, but the Man-Child. He loves pulling them off.

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  2. OMG! He's decapitating the flowers!! I have given up on most of my flower beds. I only have one left that I'm fighting with, but it seems to be winning. As for the front beds with the ferns in them, the dogs are constantly digging gigantic holes to lay in. I give up!

    (P.S. - If they touch the asparagus bed, they are dead.)

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