Seeing Green

And no, it's not the "jealous" type.

We noticed a week or so ago that some of the bulbs that my friend Raine and I planted last fall are starting to sprout. It's a little early for sprouts generally, but considering the climate, it's not surprising that we're starting to see little bits of green poking through the ground.

When we purchased our house back in August, the landscaping was done a little haphazardly. There were shrubs planted too close to the house and the enormous stone planter in front of our small porch was full of overgrown weeds.

It was a multi-step undertaking to get everything to it's present state. We had to cut down a bunch of shrubs, pull up roots, plant something that was safe to put in it's place, lay mulch and the like. The planter though, was pretty difficult.

When I say it was full of overgrown weeds, I meant it. It was like a little jungle in there. Eventually we pulled everything out and tilled the soil. There were tons of rocks in there too, so those had to be pulled out as well.

Once the soil was tilled we mixed in some top soil  and put in another layer of potting soil on top.

We still had some weeds that tried to grow again, so we laid down landscape fabric until we could get around to planting the bulbs.

It was had choosing the bulbs. Between deciding what kinds of plants would grow, what we liked and then what colors to plant since bulbs are perennials we won't have to worry about planting new things every year, so we plant once and just leave them alone and thin out as needed. I'll admit, this was done out of pure laziness more than anything else.

We're also planning on painting the house sometime in the distant future, so we had to choose plants that would go with the color we're planning on painting the house (a light taupey-grey).

We decided on choosing warm pastel tulips, hyacinths and bearded iris. I think we also planted a snow drop-type flower as well.

This spring  we're also going to buy some white rose bushes for the planter. We'll end up having to move some of the bulbs around, but after this season, we should be able to leave most of it alone and let it grow in a few years.

Our backyard has iris growing as well, although we're not sure of the color. Raine and I just found the bulbs when we were pulling up weeds. There is a small shrine-like area in the back corner of our yard with a small statue of a mermaid. The bulbs were scattered near her, and we dug them up and planted them a little more purposefully around the statue. In the spring we'll probably plant some other shrubs and possibly some lilies as well.

It feels like we're a lifetime away from spring. Today, it is deceptively sunny outside. Nothing would please me more than to be able to sit the back yard and enjoy a mojito. Of course, having a bench swing, a finished firepit and a seeded lawn would add to this fantasy.

Ah well... off to grout the counter top. Tomorrow I'll post a tutorial and photos!