Planting bulbs in the fall is like leaving a little surprise yourself in the spring. After a long, arduous winter full of soggy, snow-soaked socks and gray skies, that little flash of color helps you to know that spring is officially on the way. Even if you don’t have much of a green thumb, planting bulbs is actually easy to do. Here are some simple tips to help get you started!
When to Plant
Any bulbs you want to plant in fall need to be planted when the ground is cool. That means it needs to be between 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit. But, you also have to find just the right time for this, because it needs to be at least six weeks before the ground freezes.
If you buy your bulbs ahead of time and need to store them, you can easily do it for four weeks or so, just make sure they’re stored in a cool, dry place. It’s important to remember that you shouldn’t store bulbs near fruits since ripening fruits emit a gas that can damage the flower inside the bulb. You also can’t keep a bulb for stored for a long period of time. Any bulbs left unplanted won’t last until next year. Get those bulbs in the ground!
Read That Label!
You may think, “How hard is can planting a bulb be?’ Then, you throw out the bulb’s packaging. If that sounds like you, then you’re doing it wrong!
If you throw out the label then there’s no way to tell what kind of bulb you’ve got. And if you have no idea what kind of bulb you’ve got, then you have no idea how many red tulips you’re planting or how many white tulips you’ve grouped together. Save the packaging until you’ve planted so you can create a varied and beautiful garden come spring.
Where You Should Plant
This is an easy rule because truthfully, you can plant your bulbs just about anywhere. As long as it’s in a place where the soil drains well, then you can’t really go wrong. Remember, bulbs don’t like to soak, so avoid areas such as the bottom of hills where water tends to collect.
Bulbs also love to soak up the sun, so plant them in a place that will get plenty of direct sunlight in the spring, before the leaves on the trees have fully bloomed.
Prepare the Area
To make a nice winter bed for your bulbs, dig the soil so it’s workable and loose. If you’re establishing a new planting bed, then you’ll likely need to add some organic matter such as peat moss or compost. You can easily find these things at your local garden store. Bulbs should be planted anywhere from five to eight inches down, depending on the size of the bulb. The large bulbs need to go deeper. Loosely cover with dirt and don’t worry about watering — it’s ready to go until spring.
When it comes to planting bulbs in the fall for spring, you’re only limited by your imagination. Remember, spending just a few hours working on this during a crisp fall day will be well worth it once spring rolls around!
Main Image Credit: Mike Mozart | Flickr | CC BY 2.0
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