December and Still Digging

Yesterday I fought the wind and dug a few more holes in our front garage/sidewalk garden. Its not much to look at now all bedraggled from the frost. Our perennials have said “good night” and only a few small shrubs look of any account, but in this bed I planted 60 tulips. I didn’t use a special power drill with an auger or spade attachment. Nor did I use a bulb planter tool. I went old-fashioned. I used my spade. Here it is in all its glory! It’s ergonomically designed to be easier on your hands and wrists. Using the spade, I stabbed the ground and wiggled the blade back and forth, then gave it a twist. This made a pretty good hole for each bulb. Using this method it took about 30-45 minutes to plant the 60 bulbs. I made all the holes first then put the bulbs in the holes. After putting the bulbs in I back-filled with dirt and mulch.

I bought the tulips in a box with two types of bulbs in the box: ‘Negrita’ and ‘Shirley’. The ‘Negrita’ has purple blossoms and the ‘Shirley’ has mostly white with purple splotches and accents. Since I bought these in bulk fairly cheaply I don’t know how well they will do, but we’ll see this spring!