Note(s) to self

I'm pretty sure this happened last year, but one of the huge advantages of the blog is that I now have a place to write these things down so I can check year by year.   The note is that the bulbs I planted a few weeks ago are sprouting.  It makes me very nervous.  I want them to survive what will no doubt be a cold and unfriendly winter.  They shouldn't be putting their precious juices into tender green shoots which will be destroyed when the weather goes below zero this week.  But, like I said, I am pretty sure this happened last year, too.  Maybe it'll be alright.  

I planted the last of the bulbs yesterday, mostly in a very crowded planting next to the basement window:

That's not an art shot, I know, but it does show me where they're planted and I used old blog entries to see where there were no bulbs already.  I'm telling ya, this blogging thing isn't bad.

But for it to be effective, I should probably keep honest about what things really look like.  

That's the front, as yet uncleared.  I might leave the leaves because I don't think there are any maple leaves in that pile.  Plus, if I clear the sidewalk and let the mulch pile higher on the bed, maybe more people will stick to the sidewalk and leave the bed to coddle bulbs. 

I had a hopefully good idea about what to do with the side front.  It is completely weed and tall-grass overgrown with no plan for redemption ... until now.  That can be where the herbs run rampant!  It can be a mint patch, no probs.  It doesn't really connect to anything.  There are a couple of shrubs which are large enough to look after themselves (probably).  If I fill it with mint then it will look after itself.  I could put in a few kinds, maybe, but it's not in a spot I would eat from.  I just want something healthy and deliberate to be growing there instead of the disaster it is now.