With that said, I am having a better winter here on the farm than usual. I really hated the winter in the cities with the rushed life I used to live. Always I was running in and out of my car from home to work then break to work and back several times, scarfing down food as fast as I could and my heart pounding from the pressures of retail, traffic, and thoughts of family troubles in the back of my mind.
It is much quieter here and I enjoy the work I am doing now, feeding the horses and dogs, wrangling three mischevious cats all day, keeping after the house, promoting and making my jewelry, planning for a clothing line, renovating and cooking new things.
But I am a true summer lover and I am chomping at the bit for spring( I'm impatient ). One of the thoughts that is pulling me through winter is looking forward to the garden this spring. I can pick up where I left off with seed experiments and best of all the three types of tulips that I placed in the fall. I have never tried tulips before, but I remembered at my cousin's wedding where I was one of her maids of honor, she had these gorgeous bouquets of Peony tulips. They were the most beautiful romantic looking flowers! It had been about 20 years until I saw or thought about them again. I was walking through Menards where I love to pick up bulbs( they have a huge selection in this area ) and I saw them again. I had never thought to try tulips in my garden because I always thought of them as maybe a little boring, but I have been experimenting with creating a tropical looking garden in a Zone 3/4 region, I like a challenge, and I found that bulbs which are usually semi -tropical are excellent at achieiving or faking that impression and easy as pie to pop in, and lift out when fall rolls around. I shake the dirt off and place them in the dark on trays in the basement. Seeing as tulips are actually indigenous to an area near the middle east I supppose they would look tropical with everything else I have. I find that plants that have large untoothed leaves and glossy surfaces lend that effect.
Here I am in the process of adding rock walls and you can see the nasturtium and dragon arum that are giving that paradise vibe for me.
Even my husbands dairy farmer buddies who spend most of thier time in a stinky cow barn milking and the rest of thier time wrangling powerful beef, would comment that it looked tropical and they liked how my garden looked. My husband is like a big kid so he teased one of them for being in touch with his feminine side!
But I figured I must be on the right track if everyone seemed to like it.
Well I am excitedly awaiting three types of tulips this spring, Greigii, a tall tulip with three blooms on one stalk, I chose a bright orange color, a Parrot type in bright pink with frilly edges, and last but not least, the dreamy Peony tulip I was delighted to find at Menards of all places, in a pale pink froth.
