Eeeek!!!!! It’s the “garden monster,” just in time for Halloween. This is the hand of a woman who has spent the entire weekend planting spring bulbs. I am starting a garden from scratch, and I thought I would begin with bulbs. They are among my favorite garden plants – so colorful and welcome when they emerge in the spring.

I might have gone a little overboard, though. In all, I ordered 640 bulbs of various types. Here’s what I bought: two crocus varieties, one a pale blue and the other an interesting orange color, Iris Katherine Hodgkin, a lovely little blue-green rock garden-sized iris. 100 scilla, the intense blue “Siberica,” that I remember spreading all over people’s lawns when I was growing up, two  species tulips; Linifolia, a bright red, and Clusiana Cynthia, which is orange and red. If you have never grown species tulips, you should give them a try. They are much hardier than the hybrids, and they spread.

I planted several narcissus: Professor Einstein, Geranium, Avalanche, Minnow, and Baby Moon, a miniature cultivar that I planted near our mail box. I also bought muscari, or grape hyacinth, “Paradoxum,” which looked interesting in the catalog.

I looked at the alliums, but they are pretty pricey, so I can wait for a year or two to get those.

I planted the bulbs throughout the lawn, at the bases of trees – wherever I thought they would be interesting and surprising. It’s a good thing I have a mattock, because I needed to it hack through roots and sod to create the planting beds. I’ll be sure to take lots of photos in the spring and post them here. I am now going to take Advil and try to get the dirt off my hands.