A garden in my living room

Yesterday, I worked on my living room garden. Huh? Living room garden? In 2006, I bought some bulbs and never got around to planting them. It was not the first time I'd done that. Most years, the bulbs would wither away, and I'd finally toss them in the compost pile. But three years ago, I finally decided to try "forcing" bulbs, and it really was not as hard as I had expected it to be. Of course, I made a lot of mistakes. Some bulbs never bloomed, and some were deformed, but it was better than tossing them into the compost.

Now, if I have bulbs that I haven't planted by the end of October, I put them in my refrigerator and forget about them without feeling guilty. When I have time, I put them in pots with a potting mix, although a lot of directions for forcing bulbs says to use a soil-less mix. If a few months pass, and I still haven't put them in pots, it is possible to force some bulbs by just setting them on top of a vase with water. It's worked for me with daffodils, but the tulips never bloomed unless they were in soil. This will be my first year doing crocuses, but they are usually on the list of bulbs that are easy to force.

This is a fun and easy way to bring some beauty into your life in those final drab days of winter when you're going to lose your mind if you don't have some sign that spring really will arrive once again. All of the pictures in this post were taken over an entire month between February and March 2006. I have daffodils and crocuses in the frig now and am hoping to have more beautiful flowers in my house next month!