“When my son was three and my daughter one, we moved from Fresno back to Ashland, Oregon, and rented a house there for a year and a half. I was happy to get back into a climate that could sustain crocus and tulips, but since we were renting I didn’t want to plant anything in the ground. So I bought a redwood window-box planter, potting soil, and about twelve Crocus tommasinianus, and one afternoon in October Aaron and I made a “bulb cake” together. I think I came up with that name as I was trying to explain to him how we were planting the crocuses: first we put in a layer of soil, then he placed the bulbs, and then we covered them up, like layers in a cake.
      “When we eventually bought a house, the Bulb Cake moved with us. It was always the first thing to bloom in the spring, we never watered it all summer, and it increased steadily. A couple of years ago we moved to Virginia and my parents drove the Bulb Cake out to us. Aaron, who is now twelve, re-potted it last fall with fresh dirt and some more tommies, although many from the original planting are still in there as well.
      “The Bulb Cake is a fun project to do with little kids, but its real benefit is the lasting interest our kids have shown toward plants and the environment in general. Bulbs are easier than seeds, because of their size. There are no stems to break, their shapes, feel, and the magic of slowly growing out of the ground make them a wonderful teaching tool. Now when it’s bulb planting time in the garden, I always get help!”