I’ve had my eyes on the fall bulbs at Tractor Supply for about a month now. They were finally marked down to 75% off, so I grabbed a bunch.
My wife is all for buying stuff cheap, but thinks I’m crazy because the ground has been frozen for awhile now. But I had a 4x8 foot bed already made that was empty. I moved it out to the orchard, and used horse manure from the barn as it’s all I have that isn’t frozen. We’ll see how well it works.
It started to sleet as I was finishing up covering the daffodils, tulips, and allium. We’re supposed to get over an inch of rain this evening.
How thick you covered them? Zone 4b is very cold. Without enough coverage, I would think you’d have a lot of frozen bulbs. I just used peat moss as it is easier to use than frozen soil.
Not to opine on if we are actually crazy, but having a spouse think that you are crazy is par for the course for posters here. It would actually be much more noteworthy if the spouse thought you were normal!
That aside, planting some bulbs in winter seems reasonable. Winter is the best time to get prep and planting work done. My bare root trees of the year should arrive sometime in the next month and I’ll be busy through spring. Though I admit being a little less motivated in cold weather. I’ve also been playing too many winter sports this year, so on the rare nice days (like today), I’m sometimes tired from playing (volleyball, squash, badminton, and even ping pong, if you count that as a sport…). Instead I took a walk around the yard and started planning out pruning in my head.
I don’t know how you’ll do in Wisconsin…but I planted 960 tulip bulbs in January 2014…which was a bad winter…and covered them with a truckload of dry dirt for sale by a trucking company.
All bloomed gorgeously that coming spring.
This year I never got a chance to plant my garlic in the fall. I have garlic that I saved from my crop this past summer. I didn’t want to do it end of December thinking they’ll just rot and disappear. But now that you are planting bulbs in your zone I’m thinking maybe I should take a chance and plant my garlic now…
We were out of the house for 2+ months due to a plumbing issue (Sept 29th - Dec 15th). I had to run by the house daily to take care of my daughter’s bunny and I planted 10-20 bulbs each time (I wasn’t the only one running to take care of the bunny).
I added another few hundred altogether this fall.
I also have been running out 1-2 times a day for the past week to get and add mulch all around the yard. I fill my plastic bins at the community chip-pile, bring them home, dump them and rake the area smooth.
Another week of this and I should be done with mulching for the spring…
Just about every year i hit Walmart for the discounted bulbs. Yea, got about $100 worth a bulbs for like $30 bucks, early December. You do got to squeeze around and inspect them.because some can be dried out. Every Spring my yard brightens up. Love It
Have a Great Year Folks From the Wizzard
I had to click on this topic, it is nice to belong in a group, and what better group than one full of the same type of crazy.
My husband thinks I’m crazy every spring when he watches me stalk the yard, with a knife, looking for tree victims on which to graft. My kids think I am crazy when they open the fridge and see tree branches, and mason bee cocoons have replaced the vegetables, while baggies of apple seeds have replaced the butter.
OMG, my husband says I look like someone from a horror movie, armed with pruner, heading out to the orchard with my weapon. He tends to keep his distance when I am armed thus. : )
My wife usually gets that glazed eye look if I start droning on about the trees. I’ve been wanting to order some new currant and blackberries and she’s not too keen on that idea, says I don’t take care of what we have already. But maybe all this work I’ve done on the trees lately will give me some “fruit plant equity” with her.
But she is hopeful that this year will be a good one, especially with our apple trees, most of them will be 5th leaf trees, so we’re kinda expecting a better harvest than last year of about a dozen fruit. Also hoping for our first crop of peaches, but this little warm spell we’re having has me a bit worried that they’ll get bit later.
