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July
9th
Monika's Summer Flowers
These were planted on July 6th and have
gone through two thunder storms (in two days)
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Day
30
June 19th Last two Irises
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Day
29 June 16th Two
Irises
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Day
28 June 13th Iris
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Day
27 June 11th The Alliums all turned Green - I think they
are making seeds.
After almost a week of no flowers - An
Iris wants to come out!
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Day
26 May 31st (A bee feeding on the Allium - taken
through the window in Anuj's room)
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Day
25 May 29th (35 days of flowers - Nice stretch)
Only three Alliums and four Tulips left
now.
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Day
24 May 23rd
 
A few
Tulips and three Alliums
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Day
23 May 21st Nice big pink and
white Tulip and three Alliums - might be the second bloomers or third
 
Another
mixed
color
Tulip
about
to
bloom
and
an
Allium
Beautiful
Allium
(after
seeing
this
-
I
may
plant
even
more
for
next
year!)
The Third Allium (I had planted 6 - so waiting for 3 others)
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Day
22 May 7th
From the East side - the thin side
 
From
the west side
The east side is the thin side - it
gets the least amount of sun - hopefully, now that the weather is warm
- the whole bed will sprout up and
flower and will have a fuller look.
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Day
21 May 5th
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Day
20
May
4th - The Tulips are coming, The Tulips
are coming, The Tulips are coming
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Day
19 May 3rd Morning -
More
Tulips
blooming
today
First hot (70 degrees) day
after a week and a half - They are blooming and more want to bloom -
maybe even this afternoon.
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Day
18 April 29th
Nice Blooming Tulips
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Day
17 April 28th
First
Red
Tulip
-
Now
there
are
two
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Day
16 April 26th
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Day
15
er
night
15 April
25th First
flower
 
Came back from movie to see the
flower a little open - must have opened at the end of the day and now
closed.
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Day 15
April 25th
Tulips about to Flower
Two
more
Red
ones
and two more Yellow ones
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Day 14 April
19 101 Tulips sprouting
- some an inch long others 8 to 10 inches and some are
definitely
about
to
flower!
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Day 13
April 9 Almost 50 Tulips
sprouting
Close-up of some of them
Tulip bed looking
down
looking
up.
More of them are sprouting on the North west
corner - the North east corner gets the least amount of sunlight. But
it
does have a few sprouts also. I guess by
April
end, we nay get some flowers.
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Day 12
March 29 Hurray - The Tulips are sprouting!
Noticed
after the snow from last night (0.5") melted from part of the Tulip
bed. There are 6 or 8 sprouts - some green some red. Since it's
warming up - they should all sprout very soon. More fertilizer and more
water por favor!
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Day
11 March 21 ... Robbed Again
The
squirrel came back and ate another bulb - it likes the black or dark
blue ones (the most expensive ones)
Goddamn squirrel!
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Day 10
Feb 11 Tulip bed buried
under snow. Good!
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Day 9 Dec 7
When
Squirrels attack Tulips
Discovered
two
holes
dug
up
by
squirrel/s
and
2
to
4
bulbs
missing
-
I
guess
the
squirrel
ate
them!
Mixed
some
Cayenne
pepper
in
water
and
tried
to
spray it all over but the sprayer jammed (so just threw the
water over the Tulip bed). Bought a Deer Off spray on Dec 8th and
sprayed the whole bed. It says it should be good for 2 or 3
months. Will watch to see what happens and now having read a lot of
data on Tulips and squirrels - I know I need to spray the leaves and
flowers as they come up to avoid them from being eaten or chewed. Also,
discovered that its better to plant daffodils around the Tulips - they
are poisonous to squirrels and keep them out. Too late for now but will
consider adding them next year.
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Day 8 Nov 5 Put
Wood-chips/Mulch on the Tulip bed - Next update in Spring 2011
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Day
7 Oct 13 - Planted 94
Tulips, 32 Irises & 12 Alliums
It was a little
complicated but I followed the spreadsheet and laid out the bulbs in a
row and then planted them. The first row was easy only 12 Tulips (2
colors).
The 2nd row (middle) was
tricky - I had to balance out the 80 bulbs and mix them while not
crowding them too much - after laying them out - I moved them a little
bit this way or that way to give more room to all of them.
Here is how they
looked
- laid
out
and
a
close-up
The 3rd row was very tricky also - I had to lay out the 2
different types of Tulips (12 one color and 8 the other color); 32
Irises and 12 Alliums and then balance them to not crowd each other too
much - luckily the Irises are small about a third the size of a Tulip
and the Alliums are slightly larger than the Irises (maybe half the
size of the Tulips) - so planting them was not too hard.
  
Here is the 3rd row - laid
out
A
close-up
Patted
the
soil
-
will
water
it
in
2
weeks
Tiny
yellow/brown bulbs are
Irises (orange circle); the
slightly larger
white ones are Alliums (blue circle) and
the big brown ones are Tulips (green circle)
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Day six
Sept 22 - Planting Tulips can be
like planning Brain Surgery
Started planning out how I
will plant the following:
1) 1st Bloom: Two
different Tulips 8 and 8
2) 2nd Bloom: Three
different Tulips 12, 8 and 40
3) 3rd Bloom: Two
different Tulips: 6 and 12:
32
same
Irises
12
same
Alliums
Size of the flower-bed
240" by 22"
I want to plant the 1st blooms in one row followed by the 2nd bloom in
the middle and the 3rd blooms in the front - the bulbs need to be
planted 6" apart to allow ample food/growth for each.
I need to solve 9 different Algebraic equations - to figure out how far
apart the Tulips should be (Luckily 3 equation are the same - 8 flowers
of the same type; and another 3 equations are also the same - 12
flowers of the same type)
This is complicated by not bunching up the bulbs together or planting
them in a straight line or going to more than three rows. I would like
to plant them apart by 6" or more and also mix the different types and
colors distributed equally.
I started by drawing the
240" by 22" bed on a graph paper - 1 square = 2" and as I started
placing the different flowers around - based on equal distribution - I
quickly ran into the problem - Too many seem to be bunching up at the
same spots - for example the first point I chose was about 6" from the
edge - one 1st bloom, one 2nd bloom and three third blooms are at the
same line (1st will be at the back - etc. etc. but this leads three 3rd
blooms in the front spot also another 2nd bloom comes out to be 1 inch
away from the other 2nd bloom) There are many spots where the same
problem occurs - This is creating a BIG MESS!
Possible solution - start
with laying out the 1st blooms - they are the easiest as there isn't
any conflict; follow this by laying out the 2nd blooms and move bulbs 4
to 12 inches this way or that way depending on what will make the
pattern 'unbunchy'; and follow this with the 3rd blooms - the 3rd
blooms have the biggest problem - so an out-of-the-ordinary solution
will be to plant some third bloomers in the middle of the 1st bloomers
(there is more space in the 1st row as the 1st blooms are the smallest
in numbers (16) the 2nd blooms are 60 and the 3rd blooms are 62 -
the 3rd blooms are more complicated because there are 4 different types
to be mixed (there are three types of the 2nd and just two types of the
1st).
Graph paper
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Spreadsheet with possible
combinations
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Day five Sept 20
Bought 4 bags of manure and 2 bags of topsoil and mixed it a little
bit. the flower bed seems ready - will water it once or twice a week
and then plant the tulips around the 10th of October.
Bought some more '3rd bloom' Tulips along with a few Irises
and Alliums (returned one 40 count bag of '2nd blooms'
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Day four Sept 17
Dug up the dirt in the bed and added a bag of manure, some potting soil
and fertilizer. Will buy some more manure and topsoil and mix it in to
get the bed ready.
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Day three Sept 16
Watered the Tulip bed - Monika also dug up some of the dirt/mud.
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Day two
Sept 15
Removed all the
rocks - lifted and then removed the fabric under the
rocks and scooped rocks into buckets and moved them out. It took about
an hour for Monika and I to finish it all.
This
is
the
Tulip
bed
-
running
along
the
walkway.
This shows
the other bed full of
rocks (next to the front
of
the
house).
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Day one
Sept 10
Started by removing
the rocks from the area using a shovel and couple of buckets.
Removed
most of the larger rocks.
September 2010
Started by buying 80 Tulip
bulbs - I already knew they should be planted in Fall. Talked to couple
people in the nursery and garden shops and they said Tulips should be
planted in October. Also bought some fertilizer and manure.
Ended up buying 40 more bulbs - 20 are supposed to bloom 'early' and 20
are supposed to bloom in the 'middle' - the first 80 bulbs didn't have
any indication when they bloom. So, I will just mix these up - so we
can have blooms from early to the end of spring.
Bought these bulbs:
There
are
16
that
say
"1st
Bloom"
&
20
that
say
"2nd
Bloom"
And the other 80 that
say "2nd Bloom" also
OK, So, its obvious; I need to return
the 20 of the "2nd Bloom" (or 40) and get some "3rd Blooms"
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Copyright
© 2007 Raman Jalota. All rights reserved. No part of this
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