The Promise of Spring

Isn't Spring grand?  It is my favorite time of year.  I love all the bright splashes of color after a dreary winter.  The first sign of spring in my yard is when the red of the rhubarb plant starts to push up thru the brown soil sometime in late February.    Next comes the yellow, purple and white blooms of the crocus plants, followed by the daffodil, hyacinth, and then tulip blossoms!

Late last fall, daughter Emilie asked if I would go with her to buy some bulbs to plant at her new house.  We had a pretty good time picking them out, and she bought A LOT of bulbs that day.

I think it was the next Saturday that she asked if I wanted to come help her plant them  (I think that was also the day she bought a nectarine tree that we planted on the side of the house).  It was a cold, cold, day, (I do remember it was after Halloween, because I ate left over Halloween candy at her house).  Anyway, we braved the cold, and went out to get the job done.  It wasn't just as easy as dig a hole, drop in a bulb & cover it up.  NOOOOO - all the areas had weed barrier fabric laid down.  Did I mention that on top of the weed barrier fabric was hard, compacted soil?  And that compacted soil is VERY heavy?  It took about all we could muster to pull the fabric out.  Emilie did a lot of it on her own, and by the end of the day her hands were aching from pulling so hard.

About 1/2 way thru the bulb planting we went in the house to get warmed up and to find something to eat.  I remember how hard it was to go back out again, knowing we had to face the cold wind once again.

Fast forward several months, and take a peek at the fruit of our labors:

We also planted tulip bulbs along the 4 outer edges of this flower bed, so when the daffodil's are finished blooming, the tulips will take over.

We planted this flower bed mainly in the dark, using the car headlights as our flashlight.  It will be interesting to see how well we did when everything blooms!