How to Plant Garden Bulbs
Planting bulbs in your garden in the fall will ensure you will have beautiful flowers in the spring. Bulbs are easy to care for, grow and bloom year after year without replanting and are generally hardy. Bulbs will often split, making for more flowers from one year to the next and offering a colorful sign that spring has arrived.
Things You'll Need:
- Garden bed or flower pots
- Garden gloves
- Small shovel
- Bulb fertilizer
- Good quality bulbs
- Watering can
- Prepare a space for your bulbs in soil with sufficient drainage and sunlight. If your soil doesn’t drain properly, work some sand into it with a shovel. If you are using pots, be sure they are large enough for your bulb to grow. A pot should be at least 12 inches deep and have large drain holes. Put a bit of gravel in the bottom of the pot before adding the soil to help prevent soil from running out.
- Use the shovel to dig small holes for your bulbs. Different bulbs have different specifications for planting depth, ranging between three inches and eight inches deep. Bulbs also need to be spaced correctly so follow the directions on the packaging for your specific bulb. If you plant a bulb too deep or too shallow, they may not grow like they should or their root system might be underdeveloped.
- Put some bulb fertilizer into the holes, following manufacturer’s directions on the fertilizer container.
- Place your bulb in the hole with the tip facing up. If your bulb has roots developing already, plant them facing down.
- Cover the bulbs with the soil and press the soil firmly in place, leveling the ground.
- Water your bulbs until the ground is wet but the water is not running off.