These are traveling elephant ears

A friend of mine was nice enough to orchestrate sending me (via postal mail) some fantastic elephant ear bulbs that his dad has grown for many years.

I received the package in June and the bulbs had already been started in some soil. One even had it's first leaf.

The picture on the left is when they'd been in the ground for about a week. The picture on the right is from last night. They've only been in the ground for about a month and they are growing like crazy!

Snow in April?!?

I love Indiana. I woke up to snow falling. I then spent an hour in my PJs and winter coat hauling and placing various sheets, towels, tarps and buckets on my spring bulbs.

I'm not sure if that was a good use of my time, but I did it and I bet my plants are happy for it.

The great bulb experiment of 2008

A few weeks ago, I found some bulbs in the garage. I had forgotten to plant them in the fall and it now being truly winter, I wasn't sure what to do. I consulted Carol at May Dreams Gardens, a fellow Indianapolis gardener (who is much more knowledgeable than I).

Would they survive? Should I plant them? Should I force them? Should I just save them for next year? Should I throw them away or into the compost pile?

Mind you this is when we had about an inch of ice on the ground and the high a few days before was 15. She said if it warmed up enough to thaw the ground before Christmas, she'd suggest planting them. If it didn't warm enough, try to force them in a container.

As luck would have it, there was one glorious day of 45 degree weather! Not that warm, but maybe just enough to get them into the ground to see what would become of these forgotten pretties.


I got the bulbs in the ground. They had already started to grow in the garage. On the left you see muscari. These are what I most concerned about in terms of living. They seemed a bit dry and brittle.

I planted these under the sugar gum tree in the back where I had planted some tulips earlier in the fall.



The minnow daffodils on the left were starting to grow as well, but they are larger so I'm not as concerned about these. Some of these went in the back by the butterfly bush and other are in front of some hostas in front of the fence. I also planted some wood hyacinths and a few other small bulbs in front of the lilac bushes.





And that is the great bulb experiment of 2008. We shall see if they bloom come spring time (that is of course if the squirrels haven't dug them all up)! It will be a big surprise, too, when they do appear because I certainly didn't plan where everything went.

My new favorite garden tool

With fall clean-up comes several special projects this year. It's my first fall at this house and there are several projects I'd like to accomplish before winter settles in.


I've found a new favorite gardening tool for edging the flower beds.
Enter the Fiskars edging tool (I thought they just made scissors). I picked this guy up at Lowe's.




And it's done some amazing work at my house so far. I forgot to take a before picture, but here is an "after" picture of the bed between the sugar gum and the patio.


You can see the lovely edge the tool has created. And it's so easy. I assume I could have done this with another hoe, but I felt like this tool would make the job so much easier.


You can see the clumps of grass and soil it unearths when in use. The grass will go to the compost bin and once I have some bulbs planted beneath the tree, I'll add some wood chips on top.

Garden Sketch: by the Mailbox

This is a small space that I've prettified with some plants.

I made this sketch with my Tablet PC...how do I have a Tablet PC or even know about them? Because I work for a company that creates and sells Ink enabled (I won't write it here, because it will come up in everyone's email thanks to Google alerts)software to schools. But if you are really, really interested (hey, we're doing really cool stuff for education), Google search "Tablet PC replay education." A post about the company will be the first result. You can take it from there. :)

Anyway, I created this picture in InkArt, part of Microsoft's Experience Pack.

It has all of the flowering perennials and I make mention of the bulbs, tulips and hyacinths, that are planted there. This is the one spot, thus far, at my new how, that is truly mine. I dug up everything and put in what I wanted and took out what I didn't. More sketches to come for sure!

Fall Clean-up 2008

Fall clean-up will be happening this weekend. I need to get busy like the squirrels.

Moving the compost pile will be first.



Then...
The tomato plants will head to the compost pile.
The sad-looking annuals will head to the compost pile.
The leaves will head to the compost pile.

Oh, and the rest of the bulbs will be planted.

Those are the goals for this weekend. According to the weatherman, Sunday looks like the best day to do it.

My bulb booty bounty

Many reasons for the name of my post...
1. I love alliteration. It is one of my favorite things to use in fun writing opportunities (I serve as the VP of Funness, aka Social Chair, at work and have to get co-workers excited in e-mails. Alliteration is way to do that...)
2. the word "booty" is used in the post to pay homage to Talk like a Pirate Day, which just took place on September 19th. According to this website which schools you in how to talk like a pirate says that, for pirates, booty is treasure...which is exactly what this was! BURIED TREASURE!
3. And lastly, it is certainly a bounty! Check out these pictures...


This is an entire work bench in my garage. On it there are all of the bulbs that I dug up from my old place. There are alliums, tulips, daffodils, crocuses, a few minor bulbs, and a couple of surprise lilies.
That postal box on the left is full of seeds from Tod's mom--we went through her garden and gathered tons of seeds! (Those are California Poppies peeping out.)



This is a picture from the side that was cut out of the above pictures. Those are the surprise lilies and muscari.

This picture is of the top of a bankers' box. It is full to the brim with tulips and a few crocuses.
All together digging all of this up took four trips to my old place (and Tod helped on two of those trips). All of these beauties are going to go in my new yard soon and there will be tons of beautiful color next spring!

Fall projects: raised vegetable garden beds, edging, bulb planting

So there are a number of projects I'd like to complete before it gets too cold to be outside. I'm making an ambitious list--after all, this is my first fall in the house. This is a great time to do plenty of projects--it's cool outside and the rush of things to do in the summer is gone.

Fall Projects:

• Plant bulbs -- I have tulips, daffodils, irises, crocuses, alliums, and a few others (that is all from the old house, which I dug up and brought with me). New bulbs include hyacinths, minnow daffodils, dwarf iris, more crocuses, and wood hyacinths.
• New bed in the side yard -- at some point a previous homeowner thought it would be smart to put down a ton of pea gravel in the side yard. My goal is to dig out about 6" of a section of this, along the privacy fence, and put in some plants. It's under a big maple tree, so these plants have to like the shade. I'm thinking hostas, astilbe, bleeding heart, spring bulbs, wood hyacinths, etc.
• Raised veggie beds -- I have one now...but the soil is trash, it runs east-west, it's too close the raspberries, and the wood is rotting. I think I want to create 2 beds that run north-south, with fresh soil, encased in the composite decking so that it will last longer and I don't have to worry about painting it and making sure bad things don't leach into the soil.
• Clean up the raspberries--these things are running wild! There are black-eyed Susans, a peony, a rose bush, and lamb's ear through out and at the edge of the raspberries. In an ideal world, I'd put in a post at each end with wire between to get the brambles to grow up, instead of out.
• Prune trees--this is a massive undertaking. Everything is so overgrown. My dad is coming to visit next weekend with the "machula" (aka the chainsaw) to work on this. I'm renting a chipper for this as I don't see how I would possibly burn everything that will come down. I anticipate easily gaining 6 extra feet on the back of my property once all of the shrubs are trimmed back.
• Re-seed the lawn--honestly, it's more weeds than lawn and with the addition of more land near the back, we'll want to seed that, too!
• Edge the flower beds--was gifted some black plastic bed edging and I purchased a bunch of limestone recently. None of my beds have a clean edge and this should be done.
• Thin flowers--since I've not lived through a full season of the flowers here, I don't want to get too crazy since I don't want to pull out flowers. BUT...some things have got to go..or be moved at least.

Can I get this all done in time?? I'll keep you posted on the progress!

What bulbs to order? Minor bulbs, spring bulbs, summer bulbs...

It's dreary outside and fall has certainly started showing it's face around here--falling temperatures, leaves turning.

I'm debating about what, if any, bulbs to order. I dug up a huge bounty from the old place and need to get those in the ground. But it just feels right to order some more!

Minor bulbs do a good job for some low lying, early spring color. Color is something I definitely need in the front yard. It's just too plain up there for me!

But I remember before I bought the house, there were hyacinths blooming in the front and so were a couple of sparse tulips. I love hyacinths...perhaps I'll buy some of those. Tulips I have a ton of...but they are one of my favorites. You can never have too many.

I think I might check out Habig's selection. they had some lovely dwarf irises a few years ago that I really liked.

The Bloom Day I missed

I was on the road to Houston for work on the 15th and as it turns out my computer is out of hard drive space. So I am pretty late for Bloom Day. But here are my pictures anyway:

Columbine--I have a couple of these in the yard, but this one is the best. Each year, I collect seeds, but I haven't been successful to grow them from seed.

Wood Hyacinth--this is the first time these have bloomed (since I moved them Fall 2005) and they are beautiful.

Lilly of the Valley--this is the only one I have. I think my aunt gave it to me a few years ago thinking that it was a hosta. I think it's great now that it's bloomed. Hopefully it will spread.

Allium (I think this one is "Purple Sensation") --I planted 5 of these but only 4 grew a stalk with blooms. But I think they are really cool. I've seen tons of them in gardens in my neighborhood.

Those are the majority of what is blooming. The strawberries have some flowers (berries coming soon!). I also have some sort of summer bulb that is blooming a light purple flower. The foliage indicates some sort of ornamental onion.

Moving...meh...

Official Moving Day is May 31. Everyday I am overwhelmed by how much I have to do before then. I'm off to a good start, though. My Virtual Garage Sale is happening on craigslist.com. I've put some things on FreeCycle and hauled about 2 loads to the Goodwill. But I still have a lot to do.

The inside is daunting--but deciding what to take from the garden is even more so. Here's a list of what I hope to dig up and re-plant at my new place:

Tulip (3/4 are coming with)--these are quite possibly my favorite thing in the spring. I would have liked to somehow tag them to know when ones are which color, but that's for another year...

Iris (1/2)--these are budding, not yet blooming. But they smell so wonderful. Some are from Edna's, my late neighbor, garden. When I think about my love for a beautiful outdoor space, I can definitely mark her as an influencer. So I have to take some of these, but several were here when I moved in--I won't take them all.

Crocus (1/2)--I just planted a good 100 of these last fall. I'm definitely taking some with me.

Allium (3/4)--I just planted all of these last year as well. The 'purple sensation' are blooming right now and they are just beautiful.

Daffodils (all)--these are too beautiful to leave and they were the first bulbs I planted.

Minor bulbs (a few)--I really like the dwarf irises, the Grecian windflowers are good ones, too.

Muscari (lots!)--there are a tons of these and they are just beautiful when they bloom. A big sackful is coming with me (even though they were already here).

Hosta (a few)--some of the smaller ones are coming with me; the big boys can stay

Perennials I planted that come with me (at least most of them): delphinium, coreopsis, columbine, creeping phlox, day lilies, other lilies, lily of the valley, Beard tongue, asters, and sage.

A few things that existed in the yard prior to my arrival that I think I should get to take some of: lilies, clematis, lilac bush starts, maybe a rose bush, and these little blooming bulbs that I don't know what they are.

What I'll leave behind: Rose of Sharon, the lilac bushes, most of the roses, a lot of minor bulbs, the peonies, many irises, the wisteria that refuses to bloom, one of the clematis vines, the mums, periwinkle, weeds, weeds, and more weeds.

I'm taking a lot--but part of the reason why is that I know these won't be taken care of once I leave. It's a rental property and few renters care about keeping a garden, especially one that is larger than the amount of grass. I'm being selfish, but only because I care. I feel like an adopt-a-plant caretaker--I have to keep these precious creatures in my possession to ensure their survival.

The Bloom Day I missed and Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day! I am posting a few days late to Carol's Bloom Day--partially because I've been busy, but mostly because these pretties didn't appear until just after the 15th. I couldn't not post all of these pictures. So it works out perfectly that today is Earth Day.

This is why I love bulbs: your hard work and effort from fall comes full circle in spring when your flowers are in full bloom, filling your yard with their sweet scent and vibrant color.

Daffodils are planted around the the huge tree in my front yard. These were some of the first bulbs I purchased and I've not touched them at all since. They just keep multiplying with no fuss.

Some yellow tulips along the sidewalk.

Creeping phlox along the side yard. These look a bit more white in the picture than they really are. They are actually a light purple. I love this ground cover because in the spring it's almost all flower, but then it looks like a bed of pine needles for the rest of the summer and fall.

More ground cover: this time creeping myrtle or vinca vine or periwinkle (Vinca Minor). Mark the neighbor has an entire corner of his lot covered in this.

New this year--more tulips. These are even more beautiful in person than the picture can capture.

And the last of the tulips. At least those that are blooming now. I forget the name of these, but they are just the right pop of color right in front of the house by the steps.

Finally, these are called Grecian Windflower (Anemone blanda). I planted these in the fall of 2006 and was pretty unimpressed last spring--this year, however, is a different story. They have definitely quadrupled their number of blooms. This tuber is good to put under taller spring bloomers since it stays closer to the ground.