It's only mid-February as you can tell by this photo but I am already planning the garden. And I plan to OD on annuals.

In recent years I have stayed with perennials with limited success. My bittersweet grows like the Yankee version of kudzu but most wouldn't call that an ornimental plant.

I have planted hydranga, rhododendron, even grapes. They are alive but they haven't yet bloomed, so I can't call that much of a success.

Perhaps my frantic need to plant annuals is inspired by the new well I put in last fall. With all that free water and newly opened space, it seems a shame not to put in some colorful flowers.

And for some reason, I am semi-obsessed with the concept of the tulip craze of the 1600s in Holland. In that century, until 1637 anyway, tulips were so popular in Holland that bulbs were worth more than the region's (nascent) currency. Local officials had to pass laws to slow the commerce in tulips. OK, I'm Dutch. But the idea of tulips sounds very good.

The one variable with my annuals is that there is a great deal of shade on the property. If the Dutch had a tulip craze in the 17th century, I could start a "fern craze" here in 2008. I have ferns and fiddleheads (in season) in abundance but perhaps familiarity breeds contempt. I am not charmed by them. And I doubt if anyone would hyperventilate with excitement from acquiring ferns from Franklin County.

My go-to annual is impatiens. They grow in good weather and bad, and don't seem to need much sun. Maybe I can try marigolds, too. They worked one year.

Whatever the case, this is the time of year to THINK about the garden. As you can tell by the photo above, that's about all you can do with the earth right now.

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