Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here today to tell you about the project. You may remember me from other project-related posts such as “The Project”, and “The Finished Project”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. The guy I live with stood where three of the garden paths meet.
You may recall that some years ago the guy I live with built two bulb frames. He spent a lot of time on them, and then a couple of years later he removed and disassembled them, because he decided they were unattractive.
This is typical of him.
So yesterday he started on another project, to make a bulb frame in the corner of the yard.
He said he wasn’t entirely sure he was going to like the looks of this.
There are so many cinder blocks lying around the garden that he decided to try this. The cinder blocks were support for troughs, but most of the troughs are gone now.
He carried all these blocks, one by one, from a place two hundred feet away. I’m glad he didn’t fall.
The bulbs will be grown in pond baskets plunged into the soil, so the bulbs can be easily found for sharing, and there will be a cover for the winter, just in case.
As I’ve said before, bulbs (the bulbs themselves) are only hardy to about 15 degrees F (-9.4C), and plunging the pots into soil will ensure insulation, but you never know what’s going to happen.
One thing he doesn’t have to do is order soil to go into the frame.
It isn’t like the rest of the garden is a model of elegance, anyway. There are fences along the north and south borders, and there are the crocus cages, to prevent rabbits from eating the leaves at night.
But I don’t know about this wall of cinder blocks. I guess we’ll see.
There aren’t many straight lines in our garden so this will take some getting used to.
And that’s all I have for today.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Have you ever suggested to the guy you live with that he might write his own blog? Contrary to what I sometimes tell you about what I think of him, he seems to know quite a lot about what he is doing, and perhaps even slightly more than the most educated of pure bred border collies, you know, just because he is an expert and such. Anyway, and irrelevant to your topics, I recently noticed what might be some mysterious saffron crocus bulbs that I thought were lost to erosion many years ago. I left before I investigated to determine what they actually are. What makes them so mysterious, if they are what was there before, is that, although they resemble saffron in almost all respects, they bloom at the end of winter, like ornamental Dutch crocus. Deer ate them before I collected any stamens. I only noticed their foliage, but did not investigate to see if I could find any remains of flowers from last autumn. If they are crocus, I will watch to see what they do this spring. I suspect that, since the foliage is so well developed, that they already bloomed on schedule last autumn. If they were to bloom at the end of winter, they would likely still be dormant now. Goodness, I do not intend to write such a long comment, but this has been baffling me for years.
That’s not going to happen. There was a previous gardening blog, but it was deleted the day after his wife died.
Oh! I am so sorry to bring that up, even though it happened before you were born.
It’s okay. Writing a blog strictly devoted to gardening is a thing in the guy I live with’s past.
Lots of people write gardening blogs.
Yes, I suppose. I write mine. But, how many pure bred border collies write a blog of any sort?
Not too many, I bet.
Those blocks are heavy. What about a wheelbarrow? Will there be another row? Perhaps TGYLW could hitch a cart up to you and you could help. And why does your house look green? Is it green? I thought it was blue…
The guy I live with said that if he used a wheelbarrow I’d have to stay inside, and he didn’t want to upset me. I hear it was “good exercise”.
That’s going to be the only row, because I think they’d have to be cemented together, otherwise they’d fall over. Though it would be a way to use more blocks.
The house does look green, but it’s blue. And badly in need of being painted. He keeps saying he’s going to do that, though I wonder about his knees, when he’s on a ladder.
“He carried all these blocks” Hand truck? Easier on the back than a wheelbarrow.
He has two dollies, but I’d have to stay inside.
There are seven blocks, so he made fourteen trips to and from, a distance of half a mile.
Lots of exercise.
The rabbit fences positively glow in the sunlight – very festive. Do you ever give the rabbits a good chase? Sometimes I’ve noticed they seem to enjoy a good exercise program. I hope the new bulb frame works out.
I do chase rabbits, and have caught a few, but they also come out at night when I’m asleep. We haven’t figured out where it is that they get into our yard, The hatches are battened down pretty tight.
The idea of the frame is so that single bulbs can increase under semi-controlled conditions.
Mee-yow those Cinder Blocks make a BOLD statemint Mani! Wee like THE look of them!! Yore backyard lookss lovely….wee have 2 feet of snow…so no garden inn site. Wee wish you an Guy a Meowy Catmess Eve an hope tomorrow iss a lovelee day fore both of youss’.
**nose rubss** BellaDharm an {{hugss}} BellaSita Mum
Thanks; same to you.
We usually wouldn’t get that much snow at this time of year, but it can happen.
The guy I live with put some cedar boards on the cinder blocks so I don’t step in the holes and hurt myself. He’s going to attach the baords to the blocks, eventually.
That soundss like a splendid idea Mani~~keepin you safe! Guy iss so clevurr!!!
He definitely is.