MY FUN NEW PURCHASE, THE BULB HOUND

A very dear friend of mine gave me a gift card to Home Depot as a present and I've been trying to decide what to get. Sure I could just use it to get paint or tile or pay for part of a light fixture or something like that, but I always like to get an item that I wouldn't have otherwise purchased and then every time I use it, I will think of it as the gift that that person gave me. 

So........I had seen these online and in some tool catalogs over the last couple of years, and since part of my plan for the property is to start naturalizing bulbs (more on that in a future post), I figured whatever can make my life easier in that regard is worth it.  Now granted, I haven't used this yet, and won't until my back has returned to 100%, but in the long run, this should SAVE me some back breaking labor.  It's called various things, a Bulb Hound, Hound Dog, Garden Planter, Bulb Neutralizer, and others.

You simply step on it like a shovel, and push it into the ground, twist it and pull straight up.  You should have dirt in the bottom of it that came from the hole.  Then you toss in your bulb, pull the release handle at the top and the dirt falls out back into the hole.  Tamp it down with your foot....

...water, forget about it, and in about 6 months, you should have something that looks like this.

This is called "naturalizing" but I'll post more on that later when I start my actual process of putting down bulbs to naturalize with.

Always keep an eye out for tools that can make your life easier.  They are out there, you just don't realize it!