The Victory of Spring

It was just a month ago when I snapped this picture out my front door of the last snowfall on March 30 that we had here in the Finger Lakes. March snowfalls are usually the heavy wet kind of snow that breaks your back if you try to shovel the snow. But I am sure that it was just Old Man Winter’s way of saying goodbye until next winter.

And there were some doubters that spring is really here. My son wondered if the pictures of our Easter flowers were pictures from last year as his daffodils and tulips are not as far along and he lives just a short 30 miles to the north. Our home is facing to the southeast and we receive the bright morning sun as well as all of the reflection of the sun’s infrared rays off the siding of the house. Our winds usually come from the southwest or west so they are blocked by the house.

Now is not the time to plant the bulbs, now is the time to enjoy them! But the cycle soon starts as I buy my bulbs from Breck’s in Guilford, Indiana and if you to place your order before May 9^th for fall delivery, they will ship the bulbs in the fall without you sending any money! Now is the time to take a look at what you do have in your lawn and in front of your house and then figure out what other colors or kinds of bulbs are needed to fill in the holes or voids for next spring.

Breck’s then sends your bulbs in the fall just when it’s time to plant them in late September or October. After you get your bulbs you do receive a bill, nevertheless, I like doing business this way. I think that our spring display is more effective if you plant them in clusters. To my way of thinking, it’s easier to dig out a hole perhaps one foot by several feet square and eight inches deep to plant twenty or thirty bulbs than it is to dig twenty or thirty individual holes. I like to have something to eat before I go to bed and so do give the bulbs some fertilizer when you plant them. Cover them up with dirt, add some mulch on top, and let them sleep till spring!

There is only one catch in raising daffodils and tulips – deer love tulips! If you hope to ever see a tulip in your yard, you must spray them with “Deer Off” or something equivalent when you first see a bit of green poking up from the ground. And you have to keep doing it every week till they have finished blooming! “Deer Off” stinks so wear some disposable rubber gloves or you will smell like coyote urine for a couple of days!