There's still time for bulbs

06/10/2008

 At the time of writing, a late September Sunday during what must now pass as a heatwave around these parts (two consecutive days of sunshine), I have just spent a deliciously indulgent day in the garden. Not intentionally so. I only ventured outside to plant some winter bedding Cyclamen, and to add a few more spring flowering bulbs to the beds. I became so involved in my work that I didn’t noticed the time passing at all and it was only when my back began to ache that I looked at my watch. It was 5.30. And the Cyclamen were still unplanted!

 

While the time was slipping surreptitiously past I had done just about everything around the garden but that which I had intended to do – a phenomenon that I know will be familiar to many - from digging up all those weeds that had managed to thrive despite the awful summer weather, to cutting back dying herbaceous stock, to tackling borders - full of hybrid geraniums that had been in dire need of lifting and dividing.

 

But perhaps it’s not too surprising that I was able to effortlessly fill my day in the garden. Autumn, just like spring, is an extremely busy time of year for us gardeners: there is so much, too much sometimes, to be done before winter’s onset.

 

And, as if I hadn’t enough to do, I remembered that last spring my daffodils looked ‘quite’ good in the front garden but there was still space (isn’t there always) for a few more.  An earlier raid on the garden centre had turned up a bargain sack of mixed narcissi – an impulse buy that, at the start of my indulgent day, were as yet unplanted. Bulbs are so easy and rewarding. The biggest mistake most people make is to plant the bulbs too shallow. Bulbs need to be planted to a depth roughly three times their length. Remember to add grit at the bottom of the planting pit for good drainage and be sure to plant the bulb the right way up with the sprouting roots at the base.

 

Bulbs are also highly effective when planted in lawns or grassy banks. Especially if your garden has a natural, or informal style. If you are planting out a large number of bulbs it is easier to lift sections of turf and scatter the bulbs onto the bare earth underneath. Plant them where they fall for a more natural planting pattern, replace the turf after planting and water.

 

If bending down is a problem for you, or if conditions are not suitable for bulbs - for example the ground is really wet - plant your bulbs in containers. Bulbs make perfectly good container plants, and in fact the smaller specimen bulbs are most suited to this environment, and the flowers are easier to admire in taller containers and can be relocated easily too.

 

When the bulbs have all been planted (and your back has cause to rue the garden centre’s bumper bag offers) add a good layer of bark chips over the borders. This will not only makes the now very bare borders look better, but will improve the soil as the bark breaks down over the winter. Hopefully it will also help to suppress early weed growth so that we can all get time to replant those bare areas in the spring before the whole biological cycle starts again and those pesky perennial weeds make a very unwelcome return to the garden.