Early last fall, I bought a bag of mixed bulbs – white tulips and purple muscari, which look like such a beautiful combination – thinking Nugget and I could plant them together. Every weekend after that, we looked at each other and said, “We really need to plant those bulbs,” and then we went off and did other things. (Isn’t that the way of life?) Finally, a few weeks ago – just after Christmas, so hopefully not too late – we found ourselves with a free afternoon. Time to get these tubers in the ground.

(Don’t mind Nugget’s outfit. All his good clothes were packed. Also, he dressed himself.)

I told the little guy that we were going to plant the bulbs “Monty Don-style.” The gardening guru suggests tossing the bulbs haphazardly and planting them wherever they land, which seems like fun and pretty true to nature. So I told Nugget we’d throw the bulbs and he took me seriously – very seriously. Also, he can probably skip coach pitch and move right up to player pitch in Little League. That bulb went about fifty feet.

Moved on to more sedate underhand tossing, which worked a lot better.

I tossed some, too.

Nugget insisted on using my limited edition spade from the V&A Collection for Williams-Sonoma. I had to use his baby spade with a bunny-shaped handle. No matter, all the holes were dug, and all the bulbs were planted.

Now the question is: will anything grow? We had no idea what we were doing, really – so this spring we’ll find out if we planted deep enough, if the neighborhood critters dug everything up to feast, and if our weird Virginia winters (which are more hot-and-cold than a frat boy who is keeping his options open) will kill everything before they have a chance to bloom.

Gardening: hope springs eternal, so here’s hoping!