T is for Tulips

Tulips are the pentultimate sign that spring has finally arrived. The crocuses and the hyacinths hint toward it, but nothing is the same as those tulips.

I have dozens of varieties in my yard. They bloom from the early spring until early summer. I have every color imaginable. I don't believe in planting them in clumps of one color or color-coordinating. I like to see giant splashes of colors. This past fall, I added a couple hundred new tulip bulbs.

I fear that having been gone for two weeks, I will have missed some of them. But I also know that the season is just beginning and there will be plenty more to come.

Quick tip I learned from a fellow gardener: To keep your tulips popping up, one after the other, lay out your late bloomers first. Plant them in their holes, but don't cover them up. Place your mid-spring bloomers on top of those in the hole. Finally, add your early bloomers. Make sure each tip has space to grow straight up without being directly blocked by another bulb. Cover them all with dirt and enjoy your constant display in the spring!

S is for Snapdragons

Snapdragons are a beautiful annual. I love to use them in pots. I also used to use them in the actual flowerbeds each year. But then someone I knew who used to work in a nursery told me that they were actually harmful to nearby rosebushes. I have become much more wary of using them in the yard, then.

Photo by "aki_fukaki" on SXC

I would love to know if anyone has any insight into whether or not this is true. Thanks :-)

R is for Roses

I love roses. My very first garden came with a rosebush in it. In fact, that was the only plant in it. It's one of those old-fashioned ones that is a dark pink and only blooms in June. My next place had one, too. And when I got to my current house there were two of those in the yard, along the property line.

I quickly turned a small bed in the backyard into my mini rose bed. Mini roses are great fun, even though they pretty much only bloom at the beginning of the year.

I used the side of my garage as a big rose bush bed. I have also been fitting in more along the property line of the backyard. My goal would be for them all to grow together, as a sort of funky hedge. I realize now that it is going to be more work than I had originally anticipated. I am considering making that my major project for the summer.

Here is a picture of one of my favorite rosebushes. It is an orange and yellow mix that has a slight scent to it.

I prefer ones that are less common. It fits my personality. :-)

Q is for Quarreling

I have repeatedly mentioned how my father is the one who got me started in gardening. When I was a kid, I felt like his yard was a wonderland. I would spend hours outside playing amongst his plants. I loved to watch him plant, but was very rarely allowed to assist. If I did help, I had to follow very specific instructions. Dad's flowerbeds needed to be precisely what he had in mind. Looking back now, I realize that he had to have a manicured look out front, because it was the front of our home and my parents' business.

When I started to do my own gardening, I listened very carefully to what he had to say. Then, I started to branch out a bit. Dad would come over and make his suggestions. We would quarrel a little bit.

When he started to get sick, he often wanted me to come help work in his yard. The quarreling continued. I would help to fix something in a flowerbed or in a pot and he wouldn't like the way it was. As I continued to develop in my own gardening skills, though, he eventually realized that I knew what I was doing. He began to trust my ideas and knowledge.

Now I basically have carte blanche to do what is necessary in his yard to make it look nice. I often try to get his approval before I add something new. We definitely quarrel less about it.

P is for Perennials

I used to be opposed to perennials. When I first started I couldn't see the beauty in something that was green for most of the year and that you couldn't change regularly. Of course when I finally came around to the world of gardening, I had a very tiny bed. Then I added another tiny bed. And finally I added a third.

When I moved to a bigger place, I finally started putting in a couple of perennials. My first were a bunch of mini roses around a birdbath in the middle of the yard.

Finally, I moved to my current house. There was this annoying piece of grass between two sidewalks leading up to the house. My sister and I were living together and the time. She was in charge of mowing and asked if I could just turn that patch into a garden. It was the same day that I was going to ask her if she minded if I did that.

She had to go to work, but I have a persistent OCD personality. I spent that entire day digging it up by hand with a spade. Soon after that, my parents were scheduled to come out for a visit. I always considered my father to be a master gardener of sorts, even though he was really just as amateur as I am. But he taught me a lot to get started.

The week before they were due to come out, I fell and chipped an old break in my ankle. I had a walking cast and was told to just walk as I felt comfortable on it. When my parents came out, my father and I did a lot of shopping. He picked out a lot of perennials for me and gave me advice as to where to place them. Together we worked on that plot, with a little assistance from my mother and my sister and the neighborhood kids across the street. A couple of years later, it had filled in nicely. This is a picture from about May of 2009.

It continues to be my piece de resistance, and also my pain in the you-know-what. But every year I keep plugging away at it. I divide some, I add some, and I work on keeping it cleaned out. This has been the source of a lot of trial and error. But I have now found the fun in playing with perennials.

O is for Organic Gardening

I would love to do all organic gardening. I have gotten better over the years. I purchased organic compost last year to mix in with the vegetable garden. I never add pesticides. I know that I should end up buying all organic seeds or plants. But some of these "regular" plants just entice me too much!

And I do have to say that I love the Miracle-Gro stuff for the yard. Walmart even has a good generic brand. It's more affordable and it does a great job. And still nothing tastes better than produce freshly grown in the yard.

Baby steps, right?

Z to A in May: Blogging Challenge with a Twist

What? Another challenge? But you never finished this one!

No, I didn't. My father had to have brain surgery and has been in the ICU for over 2 weeks now. My extra writing time has been sucked up by trips to the hospital, conversations with the doctors, and updating family and friends. I've also been dealing with things with my mother who has Alzheimer's.

April has been a long, difficult month. But I vow to finish the blog posts for the original challenge and THEN I will try to work on this one. I think I can do it.

Join us!