A Scoop of February and a Barrel of Spring

Thank you Dr. Ed Stephenson from UA’s Dept. of Biological Sciences for your informative presentation on GMO technology.

Congratuations to these Master Gardeners for their achievements:

Barrel of Spring Bulbs

by Judith Rives

     One Wednesday workday at the UA Arboretum, in the fall of 2013, Jackie McConnell and I were given our task for the day.  We were handed several bags of various spring flowering bulbs to plant together in a whiskey barrel. There were at least 6 different types, of varying size and bloom time.

If they had been thrown in the barrel haphazardly, they might have been just as beautiful a sight the next spring.  However, both Jackie and I were in our professional lives, medical technologists.  Precision and accuracy were our guidelines, and there was no way we could just “throw them in the soil”.  So we looked at soil depths, spacing, and bloom time for each type of bulb. We tried to visualize what would be blooming together at the same time. We used a ruler to measure depth and spacing. We probably really put WAY too much thought into it and took a lot longer than necessary to do the job….but just look at the results!