Fall bulb planting

 

We moved into a new home after retiring from our city life. My policy as a gardener is to live life in a new spot for one year before making big gardening changes. It has served me well through the years as I have been able to see and save plants before excavating them from the landscape before I even knew what past residents left behind. Spring bulbs are something that are often lost in our haste to change the landscape.

My first tip is this...if you want spring bulbs you plant them in fall. If you want summer bulbs you plant them in spring. The availability at a good garden center will most likely be what you need to be planting that season.

I have two methods for planting bulbs. The first one above is to dig a trench to a depth slightly deeper than the bulbs I am planting. I then add back the soil to the depth that my largest (and deepest bulbs) will need to be planted. I can then lay out the bulbs in the trench to the desired density. In this picture I am planting one variety at one depth. You can use this same method to plant various depth bulbs at a greater spacing, adding soil after each layer until you finish with the smallest bulbs. If you plant in a perennial garden, it is easy to mark where your spring bulbs are by adding some grape hyacinths as they retain foliage through the summer. This will protect your daffodils or tulips that lose their top growth during their rest period.

My second method for planting is using a drill and bulb planter. This is a great method for inter-planting some larger bulbs such as alliums or daffodils among established plants to add some early spring interest before your perennials show up.

 

 

If you are in an area that is frequented by wildlife, choose bulbs that are resistant to feeding by deer, rabbits, etc. Bulb companies often mark their packages with this information as well as total height of plant as well as planting depth and spacing. Pay attention to planting right side up so your bulbs are point up through the soil, not down and then having to fight their way up. The top of the bulb often comes to a point. If you are planting roundish bulbs, there will be a more pronounced marking on the bottom of the bulb. 

 

Squirrels and other animals like to dig where you have been digging. If that is the case, laying down some mesh after planting will help decrease their digging. You can lift this up before growth begins in spring. There are also repellents that can reduce animal activity for digging and eating. Read the labels carefully to know how it must be used for effectiveness and safety, what animals it is targeting, and any requirements for reapplication after rain or watering activities. Do not over apply any chemical! They have been tested over years to make sure you are safe and that you don't damage the plants you are trying to protect. More is not always better and less does not always save money.

 

It may be too late to get some bulbs in where you live because the ground has frozen for the season. If not you can take advantage of bulb clearance bins to add some color to your spring landscape. My best advice is to buy from a reputable garden center. Big box stores have been a source of disappointment for me time and again. I have purchased items promising one plant to have something different come up in my garden. When you want pink lilies and they turn out white the waiting has been a disappointment multiplied. Mail order from a good company can be worthwhile. I have heard from friends this past year that their bulbs shipped well past the optimal planting time when our ground froze before Thanksgiving. It is always best to try and get your bulbs in the ground that season unless you are forcing them indoors. That is a whole set of instructions that I will not cover here.

 

As we go into the Christmas holiday season, I also begin my next year's plans. The catalogues are already coming... 

Starting over, my new garden

 The gardening venture begins anew in a different place.  My daughter and her husband will enjoy the fruits of my labor in the raised beds I left behind at the house we have owned for over 20 years.  I now get to garden in a much larger plot, but one that has been neglected.  One previous gardener used Roundup on a paint roller to "weed" the garden.  The second gardener, I have learned from second hand reports, put in plants and and did very little follow up.  I can believe the reports as I spent all of last summer just trying to clean up dead weed stalks only to find all the precious little babies they were sprouting underneath.  I resorted to the first gardeners technique and used herbicide to control the weeds, but did not plant.  It was tilled a couple times as the compaction was horrific and I expanded the bound with the herbicide to bring it up to the size it was when I I kept a small corner plot her over 20 years ago in the after work hours.
I have decided to not till again this spring to keep the covered weed seeds under the soil and deal with the ones that have and will sprout at the surface.  They are numerous!  I brought in some composted manure last fall which covered the smallest of areas.  This is where I will put my beds of seeds like spinach and such.  The other vine crops will get a mound of compost at their planting site with weed cloth or mulch around their growing area to try and suppress the potential weed army rallying forces underground.

I started this year off as I always do with peas.  The garden here tends to stay wet, so I have chosen to use the mounding method to create raised beds.  I loved my foot high, wood sided beds at home, but I am not going to invest in the materials or labor to do this here.  Starting with the area where the manure was spread last fall, I raked and mixed the soil a bit.  After getting it a bit loose, I pulled it up into a pile and then leveled off two rows for putting in my two different types of peas.  I like the sugar pods, but still enjoy the pleasure of shelling out peas as well.  They are starting off about six inches high, but will settle as the season goes on.  I will side dress these rows with carrots or other rooting crops to take over when the peas are done.  Right now the sprouting peas are covered with mesh to keep the squirrels and chipmunks from digging up and eating the peas as seeds.  I always soak my seeds first as the germination is so much better when I do.
I have to fence this garden much more heavily than I did in my urban plot.  The property is fenced off from the roaming deer herds for the nursery crops, but we still have four residential does that still call this home.  I put a hardware cloth and t-post fence around the perimeter of part of the garden that will keep the tastiest crops away from bunnies and wood chucks.  I am certain that I will have to do battle with something even still.

Next to each t-post is a ten foot conduit post pounded in about two feet.  I fashioned a hook for the top of each to hang a five foot wide mesh cloth that meets up to the three foot tall hardware cloth.  All together they form an eight foot tall enclosure which should keep the deer away from my peas, greens and bean crops.  The opening is an over-lap of the mesh with a gate of hardware cloth.  I have to duck to get through the mesh over-lap, but it is a small sacrifice.  Time will tell how effective this will be.  I did not dig the hardware cloth in very deep and this may be my weak spot if I don't monitor the perimeter enough.

Once my perimeter was secure (this was two separate weekends to accomplish) I felt I could continue with the actual gardening.  I used my Weed Dragon to scorch the weeds that were abundantly germinating already.  Next to the pea rows, I formed a square bed for my greens like spinach and lettuce as well as some root crops of parsnips and salsify.  Both root crops are over 100 days to maturity and are best harvested after frost for sweeter quality.  I have not added my kale yet, but need to make that a priority.  I have greenhouse starts of cabbage and bok choy to add as well.  I just hope the enclosure will fit them all!
I put the tender onion plants in as well.  I did two types of bulb onions, Ailsa Craig and Walla Walla.  I also have Lancelot leeks which I plan on mounding to blanch the stems as they grow.  These were also greenhouse starts back in February.  Onions and leeks are very long season crops when started from seed.  I have decided that the radicchio is going to be a fall crop this year to form the best heads closer to frost.  I also put in my radishes, French Breakfast and April Cross, for my early crop.  I have another called Rat-tailed which is grown for its seed heads that will go in later.  I put in short rows of these as one family can only eat so many ripening radishes at once. Straw that was used for winter protection around my potted fruit crops is down on my walking paths for mulch.  This will get turned in next fall to compost in ground for more soil tilth in future years.  I can't wait for the weather to warm if only to shorten the distance I have to run a hose to water.  I don't have a rain barrel area established here yet as I need to put up some gutter on the shed close to the garden.  I have an idea, I just need to execute.  I look forward to some rain water for spot watering the garden here.

I used what little compost I had left last fall to create a rhubarb bed with bounds.  There was a ceramic "planter" already in place in the yard.  After digging down over two feet, I decided it wasn't getting removed.  I vaguely remember this being put in by my former manager and it involved heavy equipment.  One of my rhubarb varieties didn't make it through summer in the pot that I was growing my roots in.  I think a watering lapse or late planting was to blame.  I was scrambling about with my garlic bulbs last fall looking for a place to put them in before winter.  The rhubarb plot was the only area that I did not plan on disturbing the following year.  It was also the only area that I am not battling weeds.  I will get through the weed ordeal... The garlic has sprouted with hopes of another crop to come this year.
I will continue to plan and plant.  It is almost like learning how to garden all over again.  There is so much work to get done, but I can see all of it in my mind.  I can't wait to share it all with you.