Great blog! Amazing content and style! Thanks for putting it together..

At this time of year it seems like all I want to read is books about gardening and flower catalogs. Timely post, thanks!

Must have cost a small fortune to buy all those bulbs. Can you give us an idea? I know one bag of 100 daffodils is about $50. Anyway, it will be a nice cutting garden and I look forward to seeing the result.

You CAN plant bulbs if you can find any for sale. I tried to find some about a month ago. Nah-gah-happen. I'd like to know your source. I couldn't find them locally or online. What was available online wasn't going to be available until early next year.

Sourcing bulbs is a really good question and cost is too. I get these cheap from a trade source, but I'm going to follow up and figure out the best, affordable sources for year round planting and get back to you.

Great idea, but I have to agree this would have cost an arm and a leg using retail. I spent this last fall working on a large estate moving plants around and planting a couple thousand bulbs per week. For anyone in our area, Maryland, I would consider using fewer tulips and more daffodils. Not sure whether it's the hot summers or what, but tulips have a horrible return rate around here and those that do come back seem to have smaller blossoms.

In my neck of the woods a lot of deer have appeared because land was cleared nearby for a shopping center. I'm just beginning to experience the devatation they can cause. I already had a problem with pesky squirrels eating my bulbs, though. They seem not to like daffodils, so that is mainly what I plant. I need to see something springy after all the snow finally melts. Your raised beds will be gorgeous--please post photos when they are in bloom!

Alan and I planted 150 tulip bulbs in our community garden plot on the 22nd - it was a great thing to do to start our holiday weekend. We bought our bulbs at Costco, as we do every year, which runs about $12 per bag of 50. I've seen inexpensive bulbs at other major chains (e.g. Walmart, Kmart and supermarket chains). You do have to plan ahead, alas.

I've read that if you sprinkle cayenne pepper over the bulbs, as you are planting them, it will keep critters from eating them. I tried it as I planted bulbs last year so I am anxious to see if they all come up again this year. It's worth a try.

There is one place in NC that sells bulbs in bulk ... Like by the half bushel or full bushel. Terra Ceia Farms is the name of it. I used to work with women who swore by their bulbs. I have never ordered from them but if you are looking to plant swaths of different colors, you might have to go with a non-local source (and not a big box retailer).

There is a website called Dave's Garden that has reviews of many online and mail order vendors so if you want to see what others say about their experience, that's a good place to check.

If you aren't too fussy then the big box stores in mid-November have bulbs that are your best bet. Quantity not quality is my philosophy with bulbs and I refuse to pay more than a 50% reduction of the original price. I'll pine for the lovely combinations suggested by Martha Stewart but I'm a bulk gal and King Alfred will do just fine for me.

This reminds me that I really, really need to start my research if I want to start my garden next Spring. I'm in the North of France, meaning it's cold and rainy. My garden is narrow and doesn't get a lot of direct light because of the walls on both sides. In have no ideas about what to plant...

I also have a question regarding bulbs. Do they migrate ? When we moved in, the owner said she did some gardening. Neither flower nor vegetables were in sight, so I didn't remember this until I found some bulb flowers (don't know their names) in the middle of the grass. Apparently, they were planted near the garden walls some years back, and are now in the middle of what should be the lawn. Is that normal ?

I am so inspired! All gardeners are optimists!

Oh my gosh, I'd never buy this quantity of bulbs from a regular retail store. When you buy in that sort of quantity, you go straight to the big boys like Colorblends or John Scheepers. Mail order is where it's at. Colorblends does have current inventory (and helpfully lists it out for you on their website). You can get 1000 tulip bulbs (one variety) for ~$200 or so depending on the variety.

Nanou, you may have had help from a squirrel. They love bulbs and I can imagine them digging them up from one place and then burying them for later somewhere else.

@Nanou : Squirels move my tulips bulb all the time, they all end up under trees usually. I don't even bother planting them anymore.

How I envy your wintertime gardening, here my backyard is burried nunder at least a meter of snow, more in certain spots because of the wind. I had to put my snowshoes to access my compost bin!

I live about 100 feet from a forested urban park and last year there were 3 lone daffodils blooming in various spots so it must be the antics of squirrels. Unfortunately scilla and red winter creeper have also migrated there from neighboring yards and the latter has taken over the native vegetation. Scilla multiplies rapidly to cover a space in a blue/purple haze against which we have taken many photos.

I always had the squirrel problem with tulips. This year i followed some useful tips that were on t'internet: 1) cover planted bulbs with a layer of gravel so that there is no soil exposed 2) be careful not to leave any tulip debris lying around. So far there have been no squirrel attacks and I'm sure I have some earlies coming up already! Yippee