Whidbey Island Spring

On Wednesday we took a day trip to the Whidbey Island cabin, to do a bit of garden tending and to enjoy the tulips we have planted there over the years.

As you may recall, each year we order a new supply of tulip bulbs from the Skagit Valley Growers, plant them in gallon cans, and plant the cans in our home garden in the fall. We treat tulips as annuals here, because they do not persist well in our city garden. When the tulips have finished blooming here, we lift the cans of bulbs, set them in a back corner of our yard and let them dry out. Then in the fall we take the bulbs to the Whidbey cabin garden, where we plant them in the sandy soil.

The tulips like the sandy soil and the fact that they get very little water during the summer. They will re-bloom for several years here. While we do not get the benefit of the full show, family members who use our cabin love them, and the cabin garden is the talk of the beach road walkers, who thoroughly enjoy the display.

 We worked for about an hour in the garden, visited with family members and neighbors, enjoyed the praise of walkers-by, and sat in the sun on the deck to eat our lunch. After lunch, we took a short walk over to the beach and on the beach road. 

 Then we cleaned up everything we had touched inside, packed up our tools, and drove the short distance to Bayview Garden Center, where we fulfilled some of our urge to go plant shopping.

 The day before, at home, we had made a mental list if what we needed to refresh containers in our city garden. Here's our cart. 

 And since we were sure the pots we have wouldn't hold all or our growing collection of Cana, we bought a new pot, too, 

We figure since we are saving all that money by not eating out, we can spend it on our garden.