The Spring Garden Begins in September

There is a cycle to the gardening year: the rebirth of the early spring, the heady days of early summer flowers and shrubs, then on to the clamouring hot colors of late summer perennials, followed by the long slow sunset of the fall garden and into the quiet of winter.

It’s the cycle of life of course, seen through the lens of that little patch of earth we tend. And one of the great joys of the dirt-digging pursuit is to plan ahead for the rebirth of the garden in spring. It’s in the sunset of this years’ fall, in fact, that much of what we plant makes that rebirth of the garden next spring such a life affirming thing to behold.

As my late gardening friend Jody Hackleman might suggest, it all starts with bulbs. Plant them in the fall; get your visual reward when they flower in the spring.

For the uninitiated bulb planter, here is a dizzying array of choices, from low growing tiny crocus, to funky fringed tulips, to the very cool looking four ft. tall ornamental onions called alliums.

There are so many choices in fact, that I suspect most people just settle for the tried-and-true they know: yellow daffodils and a bag or two of plain Jane colored tulips found at the garden center.

To explore all the truly fabulous bulb options available however, you need to go online to a reputable website like Botanus and mail order a selection to yourself.

And the time for getting a bulb order in to a supplier is September for October planting.

But how do you select from the seemingly endless types of bulbs available online?

First up is having a good look through the sections on the site to choose some bulb types. My go-to list includes crocus, narcissi (daffodils are in this group), Dutch iris, a couple of varieties of tulips, something from the fabulous fritillaria group of bulbs and some alliums.

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