Planting Spring-Blooming Bulbs in My Pergola Garden
It’s time to plant all those spring-blooming bulbs!
As many of you know, every autumn we plant thousands and thousands of bulbs here at my Bedford, New York farm - I hope you caught last night's episode of "Martha Knows Best" on HGTV. We already started planting in various beds including my beautiful pergola garden - it's one of the first areas I see when I drive into my property. This season’s bulbs are from Colorblends Flower Bulbs - a third generation wholesale flower merchant in nearby Bridgeport, Connecticut. I always find it exciting to plant bulbs in the fall that you won't see for many months to come - it's such a wonderful surprise of color when they bloom in spring.
Enjoy these photos and bulb-planting tips.
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- Once our bulbs arrive at the farm, they’re stored in the garden library. I order the bulbs not only for my farm in Bedford, but also for my homes in East Hampton and Maine. I buy bulbs in amounts of 20, 100, 500, and 1000. Each crate and bag is properly labeled and grouped depending on where they will be planted.
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- Before any bulbs are planted, my outdoor grounds crew weeds the bed – Phurba knows exactly which plants are weeds and which are not. He is careful not to walk on any foliage.
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- All the weeds are collected in my handy Multi-Purpose Reusable Heavy Duty Tote Bags – available at my shop on Amazon. These bags are so useful for carrying, organizing, and storing so many things indoors and out. The crew uses them every day around the farm.
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- Then the beds are prepared for planting. We always add Bulb-tone and Bone Meal to our nutrient-rich soil. The food should be a balanced fertilizer that has a good amount of phosphorous. Fertilizing spring-blooming bulbs also helps them fight off diseases and pests.
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- Bone meal fertilizer is a meal or powder made from ground up animal bones. It is used to increase phosphorus in the garden, which is essential for plants to flower.
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- There are several different tools used for planting bulbs depending on the size of the bulb. These are traditional long handled bulb planters made with powder-coated steel. The six inch barrel is perfect for planting most bulbs and has a 37 inch long handle for planting ease.
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- These are dibbers. A dibber or dibble or dibbler is a pointed wooden stick for making holes in the ground for planting smaller bulbs, seeds, or seedlings. Dibbers come in a variety of designs including the straight dibber, trowel dibber, L-shaped dibber, or these T-dibbers.
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- When purchasing bulbs, always look for those that are plump and firm, and avoid those that are soft. These bulbs from Colorblends are in great condition.
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- Next, the bulbs are thrown over the bed in a broadcast method, so they look as natural as possible when in bloom. In this pergola garden, we planted lots of different alliums as well as camassia.
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- This photo was taken last spring, when lots of our alliums were in bloom – ‘Universe,’ ‘Christophii,’ ‘Gladiator,’ ‘Purple Sensation,’ and ‘Schubertii’ are just some of the varieties I plant.
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- Ryan tosses the bulbs and they land randomly on top of the soil. Because the pergola garden is long, this bed will need hundreds of bulbs to fill it. Most bulbs do best in full sun with at least six hours of direct sunlight a day and well-drained soil.
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- Next, using a bulb planter, Brian makes the hole wherever the bulb is positioned.
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- And one by one, each bulb is carefully placed in a hole, with the pointed end faced up, or root end faced down. This is very important, so the plant grows properly from the bulb. True bulbs can be either tunicate, with a papery covering or non-tunicate without the covering. This is a tunicate bulb.
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- In general, holes should be three times deeper than the bulb’s length.
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- Each of these bulbs is planted in a hole at least six-inches deep. There are already many other bulbs planted here, so the crew is very careful when planting additional bulbs in this space.
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- Brian backfills the hole to completely bury the bulb.
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- For planting small bulbs, the dibber is the prefect tool – fast and efficient. Phurba makes several holes, and then carefully drops one bulb into each hole.
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- These smaller bulbs can be planted about three to five inches deep, but six inches is also fine.
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- Once again, every bulb is positioned with the pointed side faced up and the roots faced down, and then covered with soil.
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- Once all the bulbs are planted, the area is raked, so it looks neat and tidy. This is also a good time to check that every bulb is in the ground – we don’t want to miss a single one. I cannot wait to see the fruits of our labor, and the swaths of color that will emerge in spring.
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