Scooping soil with a spoon

I have continued on my quest to ensure I get things done in the garden every day.  Although yesterday was a bit of a technicality as I purchased things for the garden rather than actually worked in it.

I normally grow my daffodils and other spring bulbs in a multitude of buckets with holes drilled in the bottom.  For a cost conscious gardener this is an ideal solution as buckets are only a buck each.  You see, I can’t just pop them straight in the ground as we live in what was once a swamp and so it gets a little soggy for a few months in winter – ankle deep kinda soggy at times and so the poor wee bulbs wouldn’t stand a chance.  They’d just rot away.  But I love my spring bulbs – they herald the turning of the times.  They greet the spring with such a cheerful disposition that a garden without them would miss that moment when winter begins to slip away.

So each season I would refresh my buckets and replace any that had become fragile and begun to perish thanks to our super strong UV rays.  It is a bit of a palaver as I have managed to accumulate a lot of buckets.  Hubby the Un-Gardener hates the look of the buckets and thinks it makes me into some kind of crazy bucket hoarding lady and is convinced the people at the garden centre think the same thing as I go and buy more – sometimes 10 at a time!  He likes the flowers though, but thinks they are too short lived.

This season, my buckets are all a bit of a mess and have not been looked after well over the summer months and have been stacked on top of each other all higgledy-piggledy and to put them right would take something I just don’t have – time.  So while I was out yesterday I picked up some new bulbs.  I got 20 tulips, and 40 mixed daffodils and 20 scented ones, because I have a bit of a plan to resolve my bucket conundrum for once and for all, and it will keep Hubby the Un-Gardener happy as well.

Early last summer we created a raised bed round our deck so we could plant the lavender I grew from seed into it.  They are doing quite well, although I think they need a weed, feed and a haircut.  But this will have to wait.  But I thought if I slipped some daffodils into the back of the bed behind them then they should survive the winter on higher ground and once they have finished their wonderful floral display their ‘messy’ leaves will be hidden by the lavender.  Brilliant idea.

Unfortunately I didn’t have time to weed and tidy the whole bed, so I just cleared along the back and then lined up all the bulbs on the deck above their spot in the garden.   As I didn’t want to disturb the lavender roots more than I had to, I had a look about my shed for possible slim line digging tools that were the right size for a bulb but wouldn’t create a whopping great hole.  And there at the bottom of my tool box was the perfect tool – a spoon.

My spoon and I soon made short work of planting all 60 daffodil bulbs as I zipped along the deck, scooping and planting.  So we should have the most amazing display this spring – I can hardly wait!  No more crazy bucket lady!

Come again soon – I really ought to mow the patch, before it becomes too much for my poor wee mower.

Sarah the Gardener  : o )