I walked past the bulbs in a jar in the store, then turned around to get one. We don’t have any tulips, and there was an orange one available on the shelf, according to the picture.

My thought was I could reuse the container to force more bulbs, and the orange bulbs could be planted once the flowers were spent.

The tulips bloomed, but looked very strange, not like the picture at all, or like a classic tulip. I believe these are peony tulips, which are still tulips, but they have multiple sets of petals instead of a single set seen in a classic tulip. I’m not sure how I feel about them; it seems they are trying too hard. We have triple day lilies growing out front, and I feel the same about them. Showy, but not elegant.

I’m not sure how the bulbs will do outside once they’ve been forced inside, but we’ll give it a go to see.

Hurray! I was able to harvest strawberries from the garden patch before the other critters!

I’m thinking that planting the strawberries in with the mint was an unintentionally smart move. I have since read that slugs and snails don’t care for mint. So far, it does seem that the mint is giving the strawberries some protection. Or the critters just don’t know there is something to be had yet. Hm.

We’ve upped our container gardening this year, and bought a water tank to use as a raised bed. It goes with the “modern farmhouse” theme of our property, and is easier to reach and tend. My husband set it up, and I’ve planted aspire melons and basil seed (because that is what I grow best) and set up the watering system. I poked some onion seeds in, but I don’t have high hopes for those (because they aren’t basil). The green in the middle is a basil plant I picked up at the hardware store, since I had a late start putting in the seeds.

The strawberries are trying to put out fruit. I put up a gate around some of the patch, with hopes that I will get to the ripe berries before other critters.

I relocated the fancy pots to the front porch, and thought I would put in some pretty flowers, then a lavender plant caught my eye, and I remembered that my rosemary plant didn’t survive the freeze, so they turned into herb pots rather than flower pots. The big pot I left empty because it sprouts cat.

The three-year-old crossvine on our front fence is really starting to come into its own. It is filling in and expanding and this spring has an abundance of blooms. We have a one-year-old plant next to the chicken coop that is in full sun that I am hoping in a couple years will even surpass the glory that this one displays. It too is blooming now, but still has the look of a gangly youth.