When we decided to start planning the twin’s first birthday party, I couldn’t think of a better place to celebrate these two spring babies then here at home in the garden. But before we get into the birthday party, I wanted to share this post with all the details of the garden and how it came to be.
In 2020, prior to the twins entering our lives and in the midst of a global pandemic, we decided to build a garden in our side yard. We’ve gotten so much love and enjoyment out of this garden but for the past two years it’s been a work in progress trying to figure out what would grow best in this small part sun/part shade area. This included last summer’s vegetable garden for which I spent most of the summer trying to fend away stink bugs and caterpillars from eating all my tomatoes and cucumbers. So this year I decided to convert it into a flower garden for the spring and I’ve been blown away by what I was able to do in this little space!
The flowers I chose to order this year included:
- Pink Picotee Ranunculus
- Foxtrot Tulips
- Candela Tulips
- Blue Spectacle Tulips
- Narcissus – Acropolis
- Anemone – coronaria ‘bicolor’
- Muscari – Valerie Finnis
What many people don’t know is that for a spring garden to come to fruition, you have to start working on it the previous fall. So last October I ordered my bulbs from Flourish Flower Farm in North Carolina and Brent and Becky’s Bulbs out of Virginia. They arrived to me by mail at various times throughout the fall depending on which variety and if they were precooled. I placed the tulip, daffodil and muscari bulbs in the refrigerator (even the ones that were already precooled) and the others waited in the garage the garage through November. In early December it was time to pre-sprout the ranunculus and anenomes. They soaked in water for four hours, then sat in soil in the garage for about ten days until it was time to plant. The Tulips, Narcissus, and Muscari I waited until the last freeze had past which for us this year was early February, so I planted them in the beds on Valentine’s day. After that I just watered as needed when the soil looked dry. By early March we started to see a few blooms here and there, starting with the ranunculus, and now here we are in April with a full garden!
It was recommended since I live in Zone 9 and our ground/soil doesn’t get very cold that I should order pre-cooled bulbs. The only variety that they still had left to order in precooled bulbs were the the foxtrot and the blue spectacle tulips. I ended up refrigerating all the tulips despite being precooled and the only difference I noticed was they bloomed much later than the rest, about two weeks after the other tulips despite all being planted at the same time. Not sure if this was because they were precooled or just the nature of that variety but I would be interested to find out!
I followed the advisement of Garden Tom for my planting and decided in the end to plant the three different variety of my tulips in rows in our raised beds. I did the same for the rannanculus and anemone in a second bed but instead of rows, I mixed them together and I love the way these two look side by side. I think next year I will mix my tulips scattered about instead of doing specific rows for each variety. I planted the muscari and daffodils (narcissus) directly into the ground in my landscaping wherever I saw a spot that was bare and needed some love. I also placed a few in the bed with the tulips.
All the beds also have orange cosmos from years past as they reseed themselves each year, but the orange cosmos don’t bloom until later this spring/summer so I picked up some purple and white cosmos from Lowes to help fill a few holes/gaps in the beds. It turned out great! Cosmos are great little inexpensive fillers to add a more color, greenery, and texture to your bed.
Tap on the photos below to shop Olive and Ziggy’s garden outfits:
That’s all for our little spring flowering garden. Stay tuned to see how summer will end up turning out but i am convinced if I can do it, anyone can do it! Happy gardening!
