1. Today I was restless after work, and
2. I have been trying to run more errands in the afternoons after work, rather than letting them pile up for my day off, and
3. I have been trying to buy the cats’ special Hills Science Diet Oral Care cat food (the vet recommends mixing it into their regular food for routine dental care) locally instead of from Amaz0n, but the local store keeps being out of stock, while promising they will have some soon, and
4. I needed to complete a Pokémon task, so:
This afternoon I went on an outing to the local gardening/pet store, with a stop along the way to complete a Pokémon task. On the topic of Pokémon tasks: I have become very self-indulgent. I have thought, “This is a hobby, and it is a perfectly acceptable hobby, and if I need to pull over into a parking lot for a few minutes to complete some sort of task to acquire some sort of prize, then TELL ME: WHAT HARM IN THAT?” Anyway, I went to the gardening/pet store, which has a task-completing Pokémon thingie in its parking lot, and don’t worry if that part makes no sense to you.
They DID have the cat food I was looking for, but only in the 3.5-pound bags, which is a bridge too far for me, expense-wise. The 3.5-pound bag is $25; the 7-pound bag is $35. My frugal heart cannot tolerate that math. So I went home and ordered the 7-pound bag for $38 from Chewy.com, which scores well on Goods Unite Us. This is how we live now.
Where was I? Oh, yes: so, I was disappointed in my quest—but, on the way in, I’d noticed the gardening/pet store was having a 25%-off sale on fall bulbs. I like to live dangerously, in re fall bulbs. That is, I like to plant them VERY LATE. We have ABUNDANT CHIPMUNKS, who love nothing more than FLOWER BULB SALAD, and so ideally I like to plant the bulbs MOMENTS BEFORE the ground freezes solid. This results in a pleasing partnership with my frugal heart, which likes a sale. The fall bulbs go on 25% off when we are beginning to play chicken; when the bulbs go on 50%-off, it is CHICKEN GAME ROYALE.
But we are more financially comfortable than we used to be, and 25% off is enough to at least cause me to browse, especially when I have been disappointed in the cat-cookies quest. (The vet calls the big-chunk oral-care cat kibbies “cookies,” and now so do we.) I bought a bag of 7 white daffodils—an extra-fragrant variety with a thin red rim around the trumpet; these were abundant at our old house and I miss them. I bought another bag of 16 mixed pink-variety daffodils. Another bag of 7 fluffy yellow daffodils. And a bag of 4 allium giganteum, which you should look up if you’ve never seen them; our library handyman planted a bunch of them around our library sign and they are spectacular. Big purple lollipop puffballs. Chipmunks/squirrels allegedly find daffodils bitter; I don’t know how they feel about allium.
The clerk commented, “And if you don’t mind being out in the rain, this is a PERFECT day to plant them.” I do mind being out in the rain (especially I mind my glasses getting speckled), but I don’t mind it as much as I mind LOSING TO CHIPMUNKS. I went out with my little trowel, and I planted all 34 bulbs in the yard, in the rain. The rain will help water them in, and will also help cover my tracks (chipmunks are apparently alert to Disturbed Soil).
If you tend to feel crummy in the winter, may I recommend planting bulbs. All winter I can think about them, and look forward to them coming up. They are the epitome of hopefulness. I have already started hoping.
One year I planted 150 bulbs and squirrels dug up and ate every last one of them. Bastards!
But here in Kelowna we have lots of irises and some tulips, and less of a squirrel problem (more of a deer/ bear/ coyote problem, but they don’t dig up bulbs so)
I love bulb flowers. I planted a bunch (mostly daffodils) one fall when I was down and it was cheering to see them come up in the spring (and all the springs since then). Your choices sound pretty. I hope you triumph over the rodents.
I have been trying to Do Stuff after work too, something besides lying down and falling into an unsatisfactory and ultimately freezing nap! Can I ask where you plant them? Just anywhere in your yard?
We have a strip of dirt between the two driveway parking spaces, and MOST of them go there; that’s a job Paul has taken on. But I planted my Extra Bulbs FREE AND EASY: wherever I could get a trowel into the dirt. Some on the sides of the parking spaces! Some in the regular old grass! Some in another patch of regular old grass! Some along the side of the driveway! …We shall see. (And hope.)
I have had really good luck with dumping cayenne pepper in with the bulbs and then on the ground as well once or twice the following week to keep the squirrels/chipmunks from feasting.
FLOWER BULB SALAD sounds delicious
I appreciate all the chipmunk information — I had no idea they were so observant! Hooray for bulbs! I think about it every year and then chicken out. Maybe I need to go shopping and see if I can find a good sale?
I LOVE the giant purple allium, but had no idea that was their name!
Every year my Mom tries to grow tulips, and every year the squirrels win. Tiger Lilies are about the only thing she can grow without the squirrels getting the upper hand.
You inspired me! I got some half off and planted today.
YES!! BULB NATION
I believe alliums are in the onion and garlic family, so maybe they’ll be too strongly flavored for the chipmunks. They are delightful flowers, aren’t they?
Did you say pink daffodils? I had no idea they came in pink!
I have too much LIFE going on at the. Moment to care mich about the garden, but this Blog Roller me with anticipation. I googled those “purple ballon’ flowers” and they are indeed gorgeous! Maybe you could do a post with pictures in spring? I’m also casually still playing Pokemon Go. It’s not really a secret but when I walk around our block in the evening to “clear my head” before bedtime routine with the kids, oftentimes it just so happened that a spot of my team in a gym opened up. It makes me happy so what if it’s a game primarily for kids. Gotta catch them all ^^
We have the same issues with squirrels and I would also plant them very late if I ever managed to plant them. On the Pokemon front, is this not the very thing the expression ‘an it harm no one, do what ye will’ was made for?
Covering the ground with frost cloth (if you have that) or a sheet for a week or so, also helps when the local wildlife wants to undo all your hard word with planting. It lets the soil look less disturbed when you finally uncover it. And most animals don’t like to eat alliums, which is good!
I have a bunch of bulbs I bought last year and never planted. I looked to see they would still be ok to plant this year. Yes-ish. The google results were basically probably fine but a few probably won’t take.
And they are still sitting in my garage. Fingers crossed I can get them in the ground next weekend. I like planting things so even if none of them flower, I’ll still enjoy the planting task. It will be a happy surprise if any of the bulbs grow.
I’ve also switched over to Chewy.com from Amazon and have been delighted with their auto-shipment program. I’ve also (sadly) switched from PetCo to PetSmart; we are fortunate to have both in our little town, quite close to each other, and you can order online from them, too.
Can I ask how much of the Oral Care cookies you mix into your cats’ food? Do you do it every time you feed them, or just mix it into their entire entire bag/feeder? (I am extremely lazy.) My young cats have bad genetics and have already had several expensive extractions, and I’d like to avoid more.
We buy BIG bags of cat food, so I have a littler container I use ANYWAY for serving: I scoop cat food into it and use THAT to pour into the dishes. So when I’m refilling that littler container, I add the cookies then (big scoop of cat food, smaller scooplet of cookies, another big scoop of cat food, another little scooplet of cookies), and shake it all up. I’m fairly unregimented about how many cookies, but I’d say I make it about 1/10th cookies?
That’s what I do, too. I have approximately ~1 billion cats at any one time. I have 5 of my own cats, I long-term catsit a cat for a friend’s daughter who went to college, plus I foster sometime up to 8-10 kittens and cats in my large porch. So I have to try to feed regular cats, kittens, diabetic cats, overweight cats, and any other special-needs cats their own foods separately. I keep their food mixed and labeled in containers like this: https://a.co/d/iCJMeDI (when I shopped at Amazon).
(I work from home. Rarely leave the house. Am a total crazy cat lady and am OK with that.)
I think you were the one who told me I could plant my dying tulips after Easter, and they would do what bulbs do. I was skeptical. But I also had nothing to lose and so into the ground they went.
Imagine my shock and delight when this spring I had five tulips bloom! Now I want to go find discount bulbs and go nuts!
Isn’t it delightful??? And FREE, since you wanted the potted bulbs anyway!! It is one of my favorite things. And, as you say, nothing to lose!