Red Sky At Night...Tulip's Delight?

I looked out yesterday evening and saw this beautiful sunset. I seem to be looking to the sky a lot lately....

What is it they say? Red sky at night, sailor's delight. This proved to be true and it was a beautiful day. I awoke early after a good night's sleep and was surprised to find that some of the gloom had lifted. I had energy to do more than simply make it through the day.

It is November... and I do have bulbs that need to go into the ground. So I gathered my one hundred and fifty tulip bulbs and eighty daffodil bulbs along with the new bulb planting tool that was a gift. I did not forget my kneeling pad. I was prepared! I looked at all the dead marigold plants that lie directly in the path of the wind and decided to go ahead and pull them all up to make the planting a little easier. A couple of the plants were still blooming and I left them to see if I could get a few more blooms to enjoy..... and they were alive with bees. It was 75 degrees here today.


So with a fresh slate I grab my handy dandy bulb digger and prepare to begin. How hard could it be? You shove the thing into the soil and pull the dirt up and release it, put the bulb in and then put the soil on top. Easy. I kneel on my knee saver and push my gadget into the ground.... then I gave it more power..... then I put both hands on the top and pushed with all my might and wiggled it and finally had it as deep as necessary. I pull it up with some difficulty and try to dislodge the dirt. I tap the devise and pull the little handle and the dirt remains lodged inside like a huge gob of peanut butter with glue in it. I try tapping it against a rock and finally pick up a good sturdy stick and jam it into the mucky clay like soil and finally loose it. I carefully choose a tulip and wonder what color it will be I place it pointed side up in the hole and then add a little layer of soil, then top it with a daffodil and top it off with the rest of the soil.


Two down, 228 to go. Hmmmm. Maybe I simply haven't mastered this new tool... but wait I had one similar to it before and never had this much trouble. Could it be the soil and all the rain? Maybe. But, I am determined. I get 14 more bulbs in the ground and I am exhausted. I go inside and grab a cold drink. I get a fire going in the bonfire pit to take care of all the dead branches and plants I have removed. I rake a little. But I am really determined to get these in the ground. Much to my relief Deb comes up, bucket in hand...... is she here to help? Not so much. She was sick all last week and she is looking not so good. She offers the bucket to me and says that she only got 6 of hers in the ground. She wonders if we should just hire someone to put them in.... What is wrong with her? She really is sick!


She did bring this tool that looks like a giant fat nail. You can shove this bad boy in with one hand and ream out a good sized hole with no soil to unclog. I am happy to report that although every muscle in my body hurts like hell I successfully planted all 230 bulbs!! I will confess that I had thoughts of just throwing them on the ground and buying potting soil and covering them. I even thought of tossing them in the compost bin and rescuing them in the spring. Mostly I thought of tossing them in the dumpster, but I could never do something that wasteful. They had better come up!