Tip of the Week: Planting Bulbs
Posted in Gardening Tips on October 19 2009, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
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Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education. Join her each weekend for home gardening demonstrations on a variety of topics in the Home Gardening Center. |
Over the past year the horticulture department staff has had some wonderful master classes on planting bulbs through the visits of Seasonal Walk co-designer Jacqueline van der Kloet and a slew of other Dutch visitors. They arrived with their heart-shaped trowels (plantschopje) that were indicative not only of their practicality in planting but their love for anything bulbous.
The heart-shaped trowel has a very sharp point that is ideal for stabbing the soil and pulling it back to drop in a bulb. Bulb growers these days have diversified from the traditional trowel taking advantage of an array of shapes and sizes. Some are slim and narrow for those bulbs that need to go deep into the bowels of the earth, while others are wide with sharp tapered points that act like mini-spades. See Brent and Becky’s Bulbs and our Shop in the Garden for some good selections.
Regardless of what is in your hand, it is important to remember when planting a bulb to hold the trowel as you would a dagger, with the front facing your body. Stab the soil, pull the trowel toward you, and simply drop the bulb in. It’s actually not so simple when the bulbs number in the hundreds or thousands. But this method will help you get a good rhythm going to carry you through.
I generally stand when planting, hinge at my hips, slightly bend my knees, and get to work. If you prefer crouching or kneeling, be aware of the ground you are working on. At the Garden, we stand on planting boards while we work so as not to compact the soil; the boards even out the pressure. The ideal, of course, is to keep your feet out of the border by leaning over from the perimeter, but this is not always possible.