I've been outside all morning working around the yard, yet another gorgeous day I wanted to take advantage of. Today, I focused on creating a flower bed along the retaining wall that divides my front yard from the neighbors whose yard is about two feet higher than ours. They had landscaped their entire property, and in the process had removed a massive amount of ivy that cascaded over the wall and was creeping across our lawn. With the ivy removed, there was a perfectly exposed eighteen inch wide swath of bare earth along the wall. A perfect place for a flower bed that will be nestled between our wild rose bush on one end and the white Dogwood and hosta on the other end. What did I plant? About 100 bulbs: warm Ixias, firey melange of Crocosmias, vibrant red Gladiolas, Calla lilies... all flowers with perennial reliability. A few plants I have that will be added next week once I return from Philly: moonbeam Coreopsis, White Bleeding Heart, and 20 Lily of the Valley (Convallaria). These are already growing, I just need to excavate some holes appropriate for their sizes. While I was digging in the dirt laying fresh soil and peat, my neighbor came over to me to apologize for her two little girls, I think they're like 6 and 4; apparently they raided my crocus flowers! We had a rather larger hole in the front yard from where there once was a tree. Last fall we dug it up further and made a 6 foot circular garden, we placed a tall fluffy ornamental grass in the middle. All around the grass I planted god knows how many crocus bulbs and other short lovelies and I thought they were looking a little thin... the girl's mother told me they recently presented her with a bouquet of little crocuses. These two miniature partners in crime apparently have a history of raiding neighbors flower beds :) I told her not to worry about it, but she is insisting on buying more bulbs for me and having the girls replant them as their punishment.