However, I actually didn't get around to planting anything all last summer because I didn't know what I should do about protecting the wood from soil and moisture, so I put that off for a while. I'm sure it was a simple solution, but I just didn't bother to think hard enough about it =P So family and friends were invited over for BBQ parties with empty wooden crates in the space.
When September finally rolled around I got my act together. Why? We were in Home Depot and I saw they were selling flower bulbs already to plant in the fall for spring bloom. I got excited again!! I bought a bunch of bulbs, plus 8 big bags of soil, and Miracle Growth.
That meant I had to solve the lining issue right away. Keep in mind I had put this off also because I didn't want to spend much money on this, otherwise with money I bet I can find solutions right away. So while there that time, I asked the HD garden center lady what I can use to line my planter, and she said just sheets of plastic lining is fine. She said they sell them in rolls in one of their aisles, OR I can just help myself to some similar plastic for *free*.
FREE? What What?
They have a roll of clear plastic at the exit that customers can cut to use to line their car trunks if they are purchasing dirty product (like soil or plants). What a great idea! We cut a reasonable length to take home, .. reasonable as in it didn't look ridiculous like we were stealing plastic ... we really did use some of it to line our trunk for the soil we were buying, but also enough to line our three planters in the patio. They were big sheets width-wise already so we didn't need that much in length.
At that point I was so excited to get planting at home! Oh yes, don't forget I am saying this was last September/October.
Anyway, fast forward to this year. I can't describe how excited I was for winter to be over. I couldn't wait for spring as I had begun to see my flowers sprouting by the last frost. Here are my tulips from the beginning of May (yes yes this post is a month overdue). Notice I only planted 2 out of 3 planters, I thought of this to be a 'test' so I didn't want to invest too much into it in case I screwed up somewhere in the process.
You can see in the following pic that I used A LOT of staples to secure the plastic liner last winter. I'm also pretty sure we need to add at least another bag of soil to top up the level, right now too much plastic is still showing.
So this was all the pics I was able to snap of my tulips (taken with my smartphone). They were in full bloom and then wilted away within two weeks after, especially after the several days of heavy rain that we had in May.
By now they've all died and some wild weeds are growing in my planters =(. I have to find time to pull them out! However I also planted Allium bulbs last fall and I do see they are going to bloom soon! Can't wait!
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