By Kylee Baumle

Looking forward to spring

I’ve said before that when fall comes around, this gardener is tired. Though I don’t exactly welcome the winter that follows, autumn brings rest from weeding, deadheading, cultivating, and numerous other chores in the garden. Most of those things I love to do, especially weeding and deadheading; if I didn’t, I wouldn’t garden. But the rewards for doing all that are the biggest motivators of all: gorgeous blooms spring through fall, scrumptious fruits and vegetables that taste better than grocery store versions, birds and butterflies that enjoy my garden as much as I do, and even in winter there are visually beautiful images. (Red-twig dogwoods, anyone?)

Nonetheless, I’m about gardened out by now and my numerous houseplants will provide just enough of that gardening fix I seem to need on a regular basis. So who’s going to plant all those bulbs that just showed up on my doorstep?

Because of my garden writing, I am sometimes gifted with gardening products, including plants and bulbs. Companies hope that I will like their products enough to write about them on my blog, thus spreading the word to other gardeners. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. This is the first time I’ve received free bulbs and the great thing about this was that I got to choose which ones I wanted. Well, that and the part about them being free.