The bright colors and happy feelings that come from the spring arrival of flowering bulbs are months away, but now is the time to start preparing.

But before you run out and begin planting, make sure the soil in your garden has dried out enough not to damage the bulbs, as wet conditions have saturated our gardens.

"I would say definitely wait at least two more weeks," said Nadine Ham, local longtime gardener and Syfan Landscaping employee. "It has to dry a little more or the bulbs will rot."

Ham has a couple of favorite bulbs to plant now - hyacinths and jonquils.

"The hyacinths and the jonquils (narcissus) will multiply," she said. "The jonquils and hyacinths just get more beautiful as the years go by. They are my favorites.

"The tulips are very pretty but they are not as dependable as the other two.

"The little crocus, they come up earlier than any of the others. They just scoot up and start blooming in the cold, cold weather."

Ron Brechter, a Hall County Master Gardener, agreed that now is the time to prepare your garden to plant spring bulbs.

"A really good way to do it is if you dig a big enough hole, about 6 or 8 inches deep, and you can put a whole bunch of bulbs down in just one hole," Brechter said. "Just put them all layered down in there ... so when they come up you have a whole cluster, a whole grouping."

You can even mix up the types of bulbs in one grouping, too.

"You can put another layer of smaller-type bulbs on top of them, so you will have different types of bulbs coming up together."

To prepare a healthy soil, mix some bone meal - an organic fertilizer - in with the dirt.

"You want to sprinkle a good healthy handful of bone meal down in there because it has a lot of phosphorus in it ... and it helps build your root system when they start to root," Brechter said.

Ham added that peat moss or Nature's Helper will prepare the bulbs for spring blooms.

"Actually it is very good to raise the bed some and that way you get better drainage," she said.

Tulips, hyacinths and narcissus also should be planted in a sunny location in your garden.

"It is really not that critical around here because they can use a good bit of sunshine, but by the time daffodils come up the trees haven't really leafed out a whole lot, so it is not that critical," Ham said. "They are still going to get sunlight because when they start blooming, most of our trees around here haven't really leafed out heavily yet."

What is critical is keeping pests, like squirrels, away from your newly planted bulbs.

"Some people will take some chicken wire or something when you dig the hole and put it around in there and it helps keep the squirrels from getting down and eating your bulbs," Brechter said. "You can use a product called CLM, Complete Landscaping Mix. It is kinda like a lava rock that you mix with the soil when you plant and that will help deter squirrels from digging in there."