Sick Day

“Mommy, my tummy hurts,” my nine-year-old came to me saying, early this morning.

My kids would not dare to play sick, so I say, “Okay, tell your sister you are staying home and to get some ginger ale from the garage for you.”

I let her lay around until noon before declaring she needed to get outdoors. We took the baby around the block in her red wagon. For some reason, she insisted that her big sister pull her. Every time I tried to alleviate her burden, she would holler until I gave back the handle.

Once the baby was in bed, I made some chicken noodle soup. That did wonders for her constitution. Then I took down my dutch bulbs and put them in front of her. I had been purchasing one box of bulbs each week for five weeks, waiting for the perfect time. Now that the white picket fence has its new coat of paint (which took me a full four weeks) it is the perfect backdrop for a colorful spring display.

“Can you help me figure out a planting pattern for these?” I asked her.

We divided up the north side of the fence into sections. I have been planting baby fir trees there for several years now, so that there is one evergreen per post, and one at the center of the pickets between each post. We called the area in between two fir trees a “section”, and counted up ten sections. We divided our bulbs into early-blooming and late-flowering, and came up with a plan.

In the middle of each section would be one late-flowering drumstick alium

with an early-blooming wild tulip directly on top of it.

Flanking that would be two Grecian windflowers. We had a few left over of each of these types of bulbs to put in other areas of the yard.

Six white daffodils obdam went around a lamp-post by the street. I have been trying to plant things there for years and my husband keeps mowing over them. (These should come up before the mowing season, and will be obvious enough to leave alone.)

Four English wood hyacinths went in a border garden on the south side of the house.

I showed my daughter how to use the bulb digger, and reviewed the plan for our planting pattern. I prepared each section by ripping out the grass and she followed me with the bulb digger, bulbs, and water. When we were done, she deadheaded the marigolds and sprinkled the seeds on top of the fresh dirt. If we are lucky, they will germinate there, for a real show of summer color once the bulbs are done.

I washed my hands just in time for the school bus to arrive and the baby to wake up. My daughter, upon seeing her makeup work, promptly returned to the couch for a well-earned nap.