while cleaning, i also made a batch of sauerkraut. i figured out how to use my cuisinart food processor and shredded a head of cabbage. the shreds aren't as fine as i'd like, but there's no denying that a food processor makes quick work of chopping. i added some salt and left it to reduce, periodically mixing it by gloved hand. i also added a tablespoon of caraway seed. when the cabbage looked properly reduced, i stuffed everything into a tall 2 quart wide mouth mason jar. i didn't think it'd all fit, but i pressed down with each layer of cabbage and managed to fit everything. i saved a piece of outer cabbage leaf, folded it up, and used it as a cover to keep the cabbage from floating. i screwed on a lid that i had a 3-piece airlock.
i finally left my house around noontime. i stopped by the cafe to put some items in the fridge/freezer.
my parents went to the waltham costco this morning so my mother could return a jacket and buy another one with a different size. unfortunately they were no longer on sale. they also found out that costco (at least the waltham) had changed their hours, they're now opened at 9:30am.
my mother made be a fried egg croissant sandwich. my mother was surprised how fast i ate it.
today was all about planting the bulbs. i took them all out so i could get a count. i also confirmed tha the red eyes mix was in fact a combination of 10 hyacinth bulbs (huge) and 15 red eyes (small). my plan was to plant them in the southern border bed, where we tried to grow some beans one season before realizing 1) rabbits would eat the seedlings, and 2) once the trees leaf out there wasn't any sunlight. it's perfect for spring bulbs though, because it gets sunlight in the spring before becoming shady in the summer.
i saved a few bulbs for forcing: 5 of each daffodils, and 2 hyacinth bulbs. i put them on a pulp fiber egg crate inside of a box and left them in the garage. to properly chill them, i need them to be cold but not frozen. temperature bween 35-45°F is ideal and they should be chilled 10-14 weeks.
i began by digging up the bed. i pulled up some weeds: spiderworts, money plants, ornamental grass, creeping bellflowers. the money plants i replanted, at least the bigger ones. i also dug up a few small foxgloves that i also transplanted elsewhere. i ran into fern roots which i left alone. i added some cambridge city compost to the bed.
next i laid out the bulbs. the first section would be a combination of red eye daffodils and pink/red hyacinths. that would be followed by a section of altruist daffodils. the final section would be a bunch of dwarf sun disc daffodils. i read bulbs should be planted 2-3x as deep as they are tall. because some of the bulbs were rather large, i dug down to about 3 inches before planting them. this deep should prevent squirrels from digging them up, though i've never had problems with squirrels messing with daffodil bulbs. just to be safe, i put chickenwire over the bed to prevent critters and also to keep esmei from digging in the bed.
once that was done, i planted 25 siberian squill bulbs in the southwestern corner of the yard, near the 40+ year old gerbil graves. i've grown squills before but i remember the bulbs are tiny: these that i got were the biggest squill bulbs i've ever seen, about the size of acorns. 25 bulbs doesn't seem like enough. hopefully they'll grow and make more. squills look best when there's a blue carpet of them.
while i was tending to the bulbs, my father was doing some yard cleanup, like putting away the garden hose and raking the leaves. he also harvested all our rudbeckia seed heads. too bad they can only be grown in cages, as rabbits will happily eat rudbeckia seedlings.
when it was all over, my back was killing me from being bent down for so long.
for dinner my mother roasted some beef shoulder steak with potatoes.
when i got back home i continued watching the chiefs-bills game. i cheered loudly when the buffalo beat kansas city, ending the chief's 9 game winning streak.
i continued cleaning, but not as intense as this morning. the biggest thing i did was to vacuum the floors, emptied out a bin full of dust. all i have left is to bring a few things down into the basement, tidy up the kitchen, and throw some linens into the guest bedroom closet. i moved one of my umbrella plants into the living room. normally it'd live in the kitchen close to the southern facing french door, but for this week i'll put in the living room as decor.