Wednesday, 23 March 2011

(Overly) Ambititious Plans for Spring

Lusting after Spring is not rational because Canberra does Autumn and Winter beautifully, and they are both seasons I relish.  Nonetheless we have this week succumbed to the wiles exerted by the catalogues of garden porn we have been receiving.

Through J.N Hancock and Co I have ordered:
100 Premium Rainbow Mixed Daffodils
Gamblers Pot Luck (end of season run, including probably about 50 bulbs)
100 Split Corona Daffodils
100 Double Mixed Daffodils, and
100 Perfumed Mixed Jonquils.

In the meantime, unbeknownst to me the smaller portion ordered through Van Diemen Quality Bulbs:
200 Mixed Triumph Tulips
200 Mixed Darwin Hybrid Tulips, and
50 Yellow-Purple Blends of Dutch Iris.

We are seriously loopy.  At the moment getting down to the ground is very difficult and very painful for me.  Getting up again is worse.  So between us we have ordered 900 bulbs. Since I discovered this I have been weeding my heart out so we will have somewhere to put them all. We will also have to buy copious amounts of smelly fertiliser for the cats to snort.   It is really lucky that we ordered different things.  The work will be awful but I hope the results will be worth it.  I weed and plant, himself plants.  He is much faster than me, so he will be putting in a lot of bulbs this year.

Last year the results of our work in the jungle looked like this:
Our neighbours across the road hold tea parties to celebrate the blooming of the crab apple each year.












This year we seem to be planning a bigger and better display.  I am more than a little perturbed about the work involved, but looking forward to the drama of the results.

On an entirely different note.  Last night I didn't get to sleep because of muscle spasms and pain.  So I devoured the Faber Book of Diaries that I had previously been savouring.  It was really cleverly presented, itself in diary form, with three or four entries for each day from predominantly English diarists.  Some of them I have, some of them I have read, some of them I now know to avoid and others I lust after.  And will track down. 

7 comments:

  1. I wish I did something sensible like that when I'm not sleeping. I always lie there with my eyes closed so that if I should happen to fall asleep I will be in the correct place. This can go on all night. Shoot, I could have scored a novel a day during menopause.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Judging from last year's photos the effort and the hard work will be worth it in the end :-).

    ReplyDelete
  3. So between us we have ordered 900 bulbs...
    Why does that make me laugh? Such an image... crazy and loving it! That crabapple is astonishing. Pure beauty
    NicoS

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ohhhh - jonquils! Swoon. They were my favourite smelly flower til I discovered fresias.

    Happy to participate in a garden bee. In exchange for a few cuttings, natch! I pop down to ACT every so often.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Daffodils have been my favorite flower since childhood, possibly because I stayed sick pretty much all winter, and when the daffodils started blooming, I knew that winter was winding down, and healthier days lay ahead.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Better to be overly ambitious than aim low, yes? And if your excess translates into lots of daffodils and tulips, where's the harm? I hope the planting goes well, EC, without too much pain. At any rate, I'm sure you'll forget it once you see the results! Being among spring flowers always seems to take away whatever ails me!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mitzi: Thank you. Oh yes, fresias. Love them too. And we will have to talk about a garden exchange some time.
    Snowbrush: I love winter, but am aware that many don't.
    Two Tigers: I am banking on forgetting the pain when I see the results.

    ReplyDelete