The structure warms and protects the tender, young plants, allowing Ms. Meekins to plant earlier in the year. She was the first in Flint to build one last year, but more urban farmers like her are using hoop houses to extend the growing season in northern US cities.

Hoop houses are relatively inexpensive to build and often are unheated — relying instead on the sun or heat thrown off by compost heaps. With frames made of metal, flexible PVC pipe, or wood, they work like greenhouses but are covered with plastic instead of glass. They can be small enough for a city backyard or 100 feet long.

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My Iowa-gal wife has regaled me with stories about growing up with them, her dad’s  love of them, harbingers of spring etc., and any interest she has in horticulture I try to foster. So I knew I our weedy little acreage would have some forsythias in its future.

But …

Most of the year these shrubs really look kind of rangy – humdrum bordering on ratty. And in the spring, those klieg-light yellow flowers look – depending on my mood at the time – either perky or alarmingly strident.

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The almanac ($5.99 at www.almanac.com), as it happens, predicts earthquakes and a lot of other natural phenomena, and describes how we should live with them, advising on such things as the moment to start a diet and the best day to slaughter a pig (for you, presumably, not the hog). It all has to do with the alignment of the firmament, or something like that.

Its philosophy is a bit weird and wacky, but it reaches deep into the agrarian roots and folkloric traditions of America, and it still resonates with more than 3 million readers.

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Instead of organically grown peppers, green beans, melons, and other warm-weather crops, members are filling their baskets with autumn vegetables — cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, leeks, potatoes, winter squash, pumpkins, onions, garlic, and a few “surprises,” according to Judy Stevens, co-owner with her husband, Will, of Golden Russet Farm.

Despite Vermont’s rural character, there are more than 85 CSAs in the state, and well over 2,500 nationwide. While some also offer fruit, dairy products, and meats, most CSAs, like Golden Russet, are small, family-owned farms to which subscribers pay an upfront fee for a season’s share of fresh, organic, locally produced vegetables and herbs.

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In one summer, the church garden, which sits on a 25-acre plot at the Emerich Retreat Center in Hamburg Township, harvested 1,700 pounds of produce for Gleaners Community Food Bank.

“One of the goals of the (Episcopal) Diocese of Michigan is to eradicate hunger and promote healthy eating,” says the Rev. Deon Johnson of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. “Literally, I said, ‘I want a small garden to start,’ ” he joked.

What was supposed to be a small garden is having a major impact on the community.

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With a storm threatening, landscape contractor Michael McQuiggin stood in the backyard of the Southwest Portland home, and waved his arms again. High overhead, outlined against a cloudy winter sky, a five-foot-diameter boulder dangled from a long thick cable.

On the hillside above, a large crane, engines growling, shifted the rock to the left, and slowly lowered the enormous load to the place where the Michael was pointing. He gestured one way, and then another. The crane operator responded to the adjustments like a long-distance dancer.

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Of these, only spring-blooming bulbs absolutely must be planted in fall. This “now or never” push makes fall bulb planting an annual tradition in many households, where spending an hour or two each fall can reap colorful spring time benefits for years.

Not surprisingly, it’s many bulbs’ ability to naturalize and come back to bloom year after year that attracts people.

This come-back benefit makes bulbs a smart investment, both financially and emotionally. When naturalized spring bulb flowers come up and bloom each spring, you begin to think of them as more than seasonal markers. You wait for them. They come back as “friends.”

Spring-blooming bulb flowers – including daffodils, species tulips, grape hyacinths, crocus, scilla, and more – can be planted to naturalize in beds, ground covers, even the lawn where you can tuck the bulbs right under the grass.The secret to planting naturalized bulbs is that you don’t have to do it all at once. Pace yourself. Each year treat yourself to something new or something more.

What does naturalizing mean?

Many spring-blooming bulbs will thrive in a wide variety of garden conditions. Some, including many tulip varieties and hyacinths, are best treated as annuals. Others will “perennialize” or do well for three to four years before diminishing.

Others will make themselves right at home and “naturalize” into the landscape. Technically, naturalizing bulbs are those that accommodate themselves fully to their new sites, feeling so at home that they multiply naturally, on their own, increasing in numbers year after year.

Why will some bulbs naturalize and others won’t? Actually, most bulbs are, by definition, perennials. But, in reality, not all bulbs will adapt to diverse growing conditions so readily.

A lot depends on the particular type of bulb and the particular planting site. Soil, climate, water, and other conditions all play a part in determining which types of bulbs will be the best repeat performers in any given environment.

A further critical factor is that, to naturalize, the bulb plant must be left undisturbed after bloom, with leaves left intact for six weeks or more to die back naturally. It’s during this post-bloom period that the green leaves take on the task of recharging the bulb with stored food starches for next year’s bloom via the process of photosynthesis.

Look for bulbs marked “good for naturalizing” or “good for perennializing” on packaging, in mail-order website listings, or at www.bulb.com (see Spring Bulbs).

What about squirrels, deer and other pests?  Good old Mother Nature is a step ahead of you here, having programmed flower bulbs as mini-subterranean survival units.

Many (though not all) of the bulbs that naturalize best are also among the most pest-resistant!  If animal pests are a problem in your area, check out the lists of pest-resistant bulbs on www.bulb.com (Spring Bulbs, pest prevention tips).

Plant in soil that drains well. Soggy soil rots bulbs. Avoid planting where water collects such as the base of hills, near downspouts, or in landscape depressions.

In garden beds, work organic matter such as compost, well-aged cow manure, or peat into the soil, mixing it in deep enough to provide drainage at root level.

Consider the sunlight. Most bulb plants prefer full sun. But don’t let fall planting conditions fool you. What’s dark and shady in fall may be bright and sunny next spring before the trees’ new leaves come out.

For early and mid-season spring bloomers, most deciduous trees will not yet have leafed out. For late-season bloomers, shade may be an issue.

Which sites are best? When naturalizing, think long term. You want to choose sites where your colorful spring bulb flowers can become a part of the landscape, multiplying and spreading over time.

Flower beds are great, of course. So are sunny or partly sunny lawns, ground cover beds, forest edges, roadside edges. These are all places where flamboyant spring bloomers thrive.

Even shady woodlands areas can be enlivened with permanent naturalized bulb plantings of shade-loving species such as Allium ursinum (ransom), Anemone nemorosa (wood anemone), Corydalis, Arum italicum, Fritillaria meleagris (snakeshead fritillaria), Galanthus nivalis (snowdrop), Hyacinthoides non-scripta (bluebell), and Ornithogalum umbellatum (star of Bethlehem).

Planting is easy: Dig hole, pop in bulbs, cover up. Plant small bulbs five inches deep; plant large bulbs eight inches deep, or come as close as you can.

By digging a trench, you can position multiple bulbs at once. When digging individual holes, it’s OK to use one good-sized hole to plant a large bulb or two with several smaller understory bulbs (for instance a daffodil bulb with several grape hyacinths).

When planting in grassy areas or on slopes, use a spade to flip back a patch of grass, like sod, to create a pocket underneath. Place bulbs inside the pocket, then reposition the grass to cover them up. Now tamp down.

On slopes, try to position your bulbs to achieve naturalistic swaths of color following the flow or topography of the land.

Plant with the pointy end up. Bulbs have a top and bottom. The pointy end is generally the top. The bottom, or basal plate, is generally a flatter, darker area from which the roots will grow.

On some bulbs, especially the little ones, it’s not always easy to tell which end is which. Not to worry, bulbs will usually right themselves underground as the roots begin to grow.

After planting, water the planting area to settle the ground and initiate rooting. Or let autumn rains do your watering for you.

Naturalized bulbs appreciate food. The bulbs you buy in fall come fully charged, chock full of the stored food they need to flower the next spring. Bulbs that are planted for only one season of enjoyment don’t need fertilizer. Naturalized bulbs are another story – they’re in for the long haul. A bit of food now and then gives naturalized bulbs a welcome boost.

For the first season
–  If soil is poor, it’s always a bonus to work a good organic compost or well-rotted cow manure into the soil when planting and also “top-dress” or mulch with this material.
–  Or, add compost or peat to the soil for drainage and top-dress with a 9-9-6 slow release or an 8-8-8 or 10-10-10 fast-release soluble fertilizer (about one tablespoon per square foot).

What you do next spring depends on what you did in the fall
–  If you used a slowrelease method, such as the compost, cow manure, or the slow-release fertilizer, don’t do anything.
–  If you used a fast-release fertilizer, apply a nitrogen-rich fast-release fertilizer in the spring just as the shoots first emerge from the soil (which would be about six weeks prior to bloom).
–  Each fall, fertilize again by your method of choice, for optimal results.

After spring-flowering bulbs have faded. “Dead head” the plants by snipping off the faded flowers. This prevents the formation of seeds, but allows the green foliage to die back naturally, a process that generally takes about six weeks after bloom.

A dead-heading exception: Daffodils do not require dead-heading — although many people choose to do so for aesthetic reasons. Large naturalized beds of daffodils can be left “au naturale” after blooming and suffer no ill effects.

Avoid the urge to “tidy up” bulb plantings after bloom by tying up the leaves with string or rubber bands, as some suggest. The six-week leaf die-back time is a critical work period for leaves busy with photosynthesis (the process by which leaves combine chlorophyll and sunshine into the starches that recharge the bulb with food for next year’s bloom). The leaves must be free to soak up sunshine during this crucial period.

If fading foliage is unattractive, the best solution is camouflage. Interplant bulbs with hostas, coral bells (heuchera), astilbe, lady’s mantle, daylilies, or other perennials that leaf out early in the spring season. They will grow up and around fading bulb plants and disguise the dying foliage of the bulbs.

Naturalizing and other flower bulb planting techniques are the subject of simple, easy to follow how-to videos on www.bulbvideo.com.  Many of these videos are also available on it the NFBIC’s YouTube channel.

Editor’s note: For more on gardening, see the Monitor’s main gardening page, which offers articles on many gardening topics. Also, check out our blog archive and our RSS feed. You may want to visit Gardening With the Monitor on Flickr. Take part in the discussions and get answers to your gardening questions. If you join the group (it’s free), you can upload your garden photos and enter our contests.

When those sassy plants burst into voluptuous full bloom tossing their luxurious, ruffled heads about like some glitzy Vegas show girls, all the while dripping a perfume that‘s rich, heady and delicious – well, who can resist them?

With embarrassingly little work on my part, these horticultural extravaganzas – which resist drought, munching deer, and insect attacks – are luxurious additions to my sunny perennial beds and borders.

But while I love those flamboyant, big-flowered hussies, it’s the simple, demure ones which inspire a true gardener’s obsession on my part.

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When that plant signals, then everything gets watered. With winter coming on, and more houseplants tucked indoors, now is the time to think about which garden denizens are your indicators and how they tell you “Water me!”

The only difference between so-called “green thumbs” and “black thumbs” is the ability to pay attention to what plants are saying. Especially when it comes to their water needs.

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My classes in gardening and garden design take place in the winter months. One of my stock comments is, “That’s a five-minute plant.” I’m referring to using a plant that has only a few days of beauty in a location where better performance is required.

Typically these are old-fashioned favorites such as lilac. Planting a lilac close to a house or pathway so you can enjoy the wonderful fragrance is something I discourage since in my part of Virginia and southward, it blooms for what seems like five minutes.

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