A bluebell wood… maybe

I have this crazy idea that we should fill our wood with bluebells.  We have snowdrops and daffodils and crocuses galore, but no bluebells.  This is the year that I hope to rectify that oversight.

So just before half term 500 bulbs arrived and a bulb planter.  I set to work.  I didn’t have much time and barely made a dent in the 500, but I found a working method.  First I tore back a patch of ground ivy, then I planted.  It’s a useful technique… you know where you’ve been.  When we got back from Italy I was energised and ready to finish the job.

Peel back some ivy, plant.  Peel back some more, plant some more.  After a time the ball of ivy would be sufficiently large that I could bundle it up and add it to the mound that was building on the side of the path.  Occasionally I’d stop and strip a tree of its ivy – not as time sensitive, but a strain on different body parts and hopefully it’ll even out any resulting aches and pains.

 And in a short time I’d reduced the box to a final handful of bulbs.  It was tempting to leave them for another day but I slogged on and got them all done.  What was once a mat of ivy is now all planted and in a few years should be a sea of blue in May.  Should be.

I was so ecstatic I ordered another 500… what have I done!?

There's a post script to this.  On ordering my second batch of 500 I discovered that my garden fairy, aka Dad, had been to visit while we were away and done some planting for me.  What an angel.  How many of the 500 did I actually plant?