Spring is officially here! A few weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised when our daffodils and tulips peeked out of the ground and added some life to our yard after the long winter. Our grass was still yellow, the shrubbery hadn’t yet filled in, and our cherry blossom tree was just starting to bloom. It was nice to see the pops of color from our Fall-planted bulbs, but today I realized that’s it. Those are the only Fall bulbs I planted and now they’re done for the year.

So, I went off and picked out some dahlia tubers, sunflower seeds, and a couple different types of mixed annual seed packets to scatter between our shrubs in the front yard.

First up- the dahlias. I’ve never planted tubers before, but I wanted a later-blooming flower so we could enjoy new growth throughout the season. I planted these in the backyard in between all of our bushes and trees, and I’m hoping they get enough sun back there. Since it’s my second year planting anything (and my first planting flowers), it’s trial-and-error at this point. I bought the huge dinner plate variety of dahlias, so I’m expecting some pretty big blooms in late summer!

Next I planted the sunflowers. I added some to the side yard where we planted vegetables last year, and once I realized I had a lot of leftover seeds decided to add some to the backyard behind the BBQ by the fence. Again, I’m hoping there’s enough sun for these to grow to their full potential.

Lastly, I got an annual flower mixture of seeds for the front of the house. I had no idea how many seed packets I would need, but I bought three. When I scattered the seeds at first, most of them spilled out into one tiny space in our yard and the first packet was gone. Oops. I tried to spread them around, but we might have some serious growth over there. I realized I wouldn’t have enough seeds for the front if I’d be using them so liberally, so I went back and got three more packets, this time buying Burpees mixed annuals. Looks like we will have a HUGE variety of flowers out there, most of which I won’t be able to name or pronounce, but they should germinate in 5-25 days (depending on the variety) and bloom in 25-50.

Well… That’s all for today. My fingers are crossed for some great weather this week so I can continue to clean up the garden and tidy up our yard!