A few sunny days this week inspired me to get out into the garden.

I can’t prune yet (for fear of promoting new growth) because we could easily have more freezing weather before the 2nd week in March, our last average freeze.

And I don’t want to pick up all those oak leaves covering the dead plants either, because they are providing a little winter cover. (It’s supposed be down to 36 tonight.)

But I can put in some cool weather annuals in pots and planters to bring some color into my mostly-brown landscape. So I went to the Natural Gardener on Friday and bought some little pretties to scatter about and bring some cheer. I put these three colorful annuals in the pots by the front door.

I also cleaned out and planted one of my window boxes with some very perky Spring colors.
And then I planted all the bulbs I bought last fall.

I know, I know.

In Central Texas, most bulbs are supposed to be planted right after Thanksgiving.

But with traveling for Thanksgiving, preparing for the holidays, two birthdays, party for 160, and traveling for Christmas, bulb planting just wasn’t on my list!

I know – I’m a slacker~! Frankly, I shut off the gardening part of my brain the first of November. It’s tough sometimes, but I just can’t juggle all that at once.

If you were reading through here last January, you’ve read about me doing this before! And since those bulbs came up just fine, I’ve decided I will just plant them on my own time line and hope.
So, now I am ready to welcome back gardening with open arms.
I planted about 60 bulbs this week – most of them daffodils. (I love them, AND the deer don’t — the perfect combination for outside the fence.) But I still covered them up because the deer love to check out the turned earth and the compost and stomp around new plants, whether they eat them or not.

I planted:

Odorous Plenus “Double Campernelle” — which is supposed to be an early blooming heirloom Narcissus dating back to the 1600s and very fragrant.

Tete-a-tete — a shorter Daffodil that I tucked in among some other perennials.

Jonquil “Simplex” — a standard 10-12″ daffodil that I scattered about in several places.

Yellow grape Muscari “Golden Fragrance” — a variety very different from the traditional grapy muscari, known for its scent, which is said to smell a bit like a mix of gardenia and banana.

Fritillaria michailovskyi — a 6″ tall Turkish wildflower with 1-5 purple=edged and yellow hanging bell flowers per stem. They looked so exotic and beautiful in the catalog, I just had to have a bag of them. I put these right outside the breakfast room window, where I will see them the most.




Cross your fingers for me!

Bulbs planted in previous years are popping up all over the beds, much to my delight. If I had to pick one favorite moment in time in the garden, it would be watching the daffodils open in the spring.

What’s your favorite moment in time in the garden?