Chris Burrous: Everyone’s a farmer when it comes to their own backyard, try these tips for doing’ it Home Grown.
Kristine Hanson: In these bulbs, it’s everything you need for a spring garden. There are leaves, flowers, nutrients- Mother Nature even supplies the climate and the water. All you have to do is find a place for these in your garden, plant them and the hardest part is- wait until spring.
Well, not all bulbs look like this. There are tubers, rhizomes like bearded irises. But they all have one thing in common, there’s a little tiny plant inside of them. So, fall is typically when we think of planting these types of things because look at the display here in the nursery, in garden centers and in grocery stores. But you can plant bulbs all year round. So how do we pick amongst all these bulbs? I’ll show you how.
So let’s dive into this bucket of bulbs. Generally the bigger the bulb, the better- the bigger flower you’re going to get. This is a daffodil, rule of thumb pick the biggest bulb for the type of bulb that you’re going to plant. This is a daffodil, this is a tulip. Really nice form tulip, very solid…stay away from anything that’s mushy or that has a white fusarium mold on it. This black and brown stuff can just be brushed off and is not going to present any problems. Now many times you’re just going to buy them in packages like this. Just make sure, like you would do anything else, turn it over, and thumb through the ones that are in the package. Feel them and make sure there are none that are mushy. These are really beautiful because they are put together by horticulture societies, there’s a real beautiful mix of bulbs.
Although bulbs aren’t real fussy, you still want a good mix in your garden soil. Make sure it’s not too sandy, the water will drain away or too clay like otherwise it’s really going to smother the roots. Make sure you have a soil that holds together and can be easily broken apart. You’re also going to want to use a supplemental nutrient like a bulb fertilizer that has time release nitrogen in it. Just sprinkle a little of that in the soil and mix it in. And while your bulbs do have nutrients in them, this is just going to give them a little extra energy for that long underground growing season.
I like to toss bulbs into the area that I’m going to plant instead of placing them, and then I dig a hole wherever they land. I think it looks a lot more natural that way, although it does depend on the look that you’re trying to achieve. Just make sure that you plant a bunch of bulbs, so you fill in that area that you are planting and save some for cut flowers later. There are a couple ways to plant bulbs, either with a bulb digger or a trowel. A rule of thumb, make sure you dig down 3 times as long as the bulb is tall. In case of a 2 inch tulip bulb, you’re going to’ want to dig down 6 inches, pull it up, place the bulb pointy side up, with the case of a tulip and then fill in the hole. With a daffy, make sure these furry feet are planted feet first.
So all that excitement for those little brown bulbs, but here’s the pay off- so make a wish for the future. There’s nothing as bright and cheerful as the first signs of spring after a long winter.