Fine Gardening

Posts Tagged ‘Gardening Bulbs’

Gardening Bulbs

As you decide how you want to organize your fine gardening for next spring, you have three main sources from which to get your plants: you can sow seeds, plant seedlings, or plant bulbs.  Of the three choices, gardening bulbs may be the best choice for find gardening year after year.  Not only are bulbs perennials, meaning that they continue to grow for years on end, but they are easier to maintain from one season to the next, and they are generally cheaper than purchasing seedlings from a nursery.

If you are going to be gardening bulbs, you need to start in the late fall, just before the frost hits.  This may seem to be a counterintuitive time to begin gardening, but your bulbs should sit in the ground all winter before they are ready to come up in the spring.  Most bulbs are able to tolerate frost, but make sure to check before you plant in the fall.  For instance, lilies, irises, and tulips will survive almost any winter weather in the continental United States.  Dahlias, on the other hand, will often die from prolonged frost exposure.  If you get a moderate snow cover every winter, you shouldn’t plant your dahlias in the fall.

Once you have decided what you are going to put in the ground, your next gardening bulbs step should be to dig your holes and actually plant your bulbs.  There are many ways to plant your bulbs.  If you are into fine gardening and want precise rows of flowers in the spring, you might want to buy a bulb planter.  This ensures that your bulbs are evenly spaced and stay in a straight line.  If you are planting bulbs, you have to do a little research.  Different bulbs go into the ground at different depths.  You will need to check for each species you are planting.  However, all bulbs should be spaced approximately four to six inches apart.  Dig your hole, throw in a little fertilizer, and place your bulb in the hole.  Cover it with dirt and gently pat it in place.

Gardening bulbs can bring fine gardening within easy reach of people who love flowers but don’t have a lot of time to spend on their gardens.  After you do your work in the fall, all you have to do is wait for the spring.  Without any assistance your bulbs will come up.  Some of the loveliest flowers come from gardening bulbs.  Daffodils, lilies, star of Bethlehem, irises, bluebells, crocuses, and hyacinths all grow from bulbs.  And let’s not forget the most famous product of gardening bulbs: the tulip.  With the advent of online ordering, it is even possible for you to get tulip bulbs shipped right from Holland to your front door.

Once your gardening has paid off and your plot is awash with colorful blooms, bulb gardening is still low maintenance.  All you need to do is keep an eye on which blossoms are beginning to flag and dead-head them.  Then in the fall, let your leaves die a natural death and wait for your new plants to grow in the spring.