Our Garden

In mid-November of last autumn, I moved the shrubs in front of the house into a new orientation and dug up a flower bed for spring and summer bulbs.


I planted several varieties of bulbs in groupings and layers, so I'm eager for spring to arrive so I can see how it all turns out. This is the first time that I've put some thought into the heights and bloom periods of the bulbs I've planted, so hopefully they won't look awkward and out of place while they're coming in or fading away.

I chose flower colours in purples, blues and creams. I hope they'll look nice against the red house. Here's a rough plan of the layout:


(1) 40 crocuses (cream, blue & purple), 4" tall, blooming Feb - Mar
(2) 24 tulips (cream), 14" tall, blooming Mar - Apr
(3) 12 tulips (purple with white edges), 22" tall, blooming Apr - May
(4) 10 alliums (purple), 30" tall, blooming May - July

The yews and euonymus are the shrubs.

It's already March now, and I don't see any sign of the crocuses. I hope they survived the winter and are just being a little lazy!

This week, I also started to germinate some seeds. I have always wanted to grow Astilbes, but I've never had any luck with them before. Has anyone successfully grown Astilbes from seed?


I put the seeds in soil in a plastic egg carton. The carton has two layers of cups, so I pulled one layer off to put on the bottom to catch excess water, poked holes in the other layer where the soil and seeds go, and kept the lid attached so it works like a greenhouse cover.

My brother gave me this little sprinkle spout that attaches to a regular water bottle. It creates a very gentle sprinkle of water that's perfect for watering those tiny seeds.



If the Astilbes successfully germinate, I'll probably plant them in the backyard. They're a little too tall for the front garden at 2' to 3'.

According to my layout above, I still have a bunch of empty spaces in the front garden that I'd like to fill with other perennials. I've flipped through a couple of mail-order plant catalogs, but I still can't decide what to get and in what colours.


If I stick with the purple-blues, I could go with variegated vinca (8" tall & forms a dense mat).

But I kind of want to introduce a different colour, like orange or yellow. So, I thought maybe oranges & lemons (18" tall)


or black eyed susans (not sure how tall these get), but maybe those colours are too strong.



Any suggestions on what kinds of plants I should fill the gaps with?