How to plant bulbs

How to plant a single bulb

1. Use the bulb planter and press down in the soil, twisting as you go. (dig down about 3x the depth of a bulb)
2. Pull out the bulb planter.
3. Place the bulb in the whole, roots facing downward.
4. Fill your hole and cover your bulb with soil.

How to plant a group of bulbs

1. Determine where you want the bulbs to go.
2. Dig an odd shaped hole 3x the depth of the bulbs. (This allows the bulbs to look more natural when they grow.)
3. Add a handful of fertilizer to the soil in the hole and mix it into the soil.
4. Add the bulbs by staggering them throughout the hole, root side down.
5. Backfill the soil over the hole and bulbs.
6. Water the bulbs.

Tips

• When shopping for bulbs you want them to feel very heavy and very firm.
• If you’re not sure which side if the bulb is the root then place it on its side.
• When digging the hole be sure to use your legs to avoid a sore back.

Bulbs

Shovel (for planting a group of bulbs)

Bulb planter (for single bulb planting)

Bulb fertilizer

Hi, I'm Kristin Schleiter with howdini.com. Today we're going to be planting bulbs. We're going to plant them two ways. One, we're going to plant just a single bulb. Something that's easy to do if you have an established bed, and then I'm also, going to show you how to plant them all in one big hole. Takes a little less time and a little less effort.

When you're using a single bulb, we're going to use this nice handy little bulb planter. It's inexpensive, easy to find at any box store around town, and really quite easy to use. For digging the larger hole, we're going to use the big shovel. It's easy to use and makes the job go quickly. Also, we're going to add some bulb fertilizer, to help give the bulbs a little bit of an extra boost, to make sure that their flowers are nice and big and healthy in the spring.

And today we're working with daffodil bulbs. These are great ones. They're heavy for their size, they're nice and firm. When you're shopping for bulbs, it's a lot like shopping for fruit. You want it to feel very heavy and very firm. That helps to ensure that they're going to, again, have great flowers in the spring.

First, we're going to take the bulb planter and press down in the soil, twisting as you go, and you can see the soil pops right up in the center of the planter. You want to get about three times the depth of a bulb. That's sort of a rule of thumb for any kind of bulb. So we're going to push down, keep pushing and digging. It takes a little bit of elbow grease but you'll get it. Then pull it out, and out pops the soil.

Now we're ready to drop the bulb in the hole. When you do that, you want to make sure it goes root side down. And if you have a bulb where you can't exactly tell which is the root, and which is the top, put it in sideways, and the bulb will figure it out for itself, in the spring. Down into the hole it goes and backfill.

Now I'm going to show you how to dig the big hole for the mass planting. Figure out first, where you think you want the bulbs to be, and remember, that unless you have a very formal yard, it looks nice when they sort of have a natural feel and they're scattered a bit. So you want to do your hole in some sort of an odd shape, not just a perfect round circle. I'm going to plant from here to about there. So I'm just going to dig. You don't have to get too much deeper, we're almost deep enough.

When you're digging it's a good idea to make sure that you use your legs. If you just try to do this all with your back, you can end up with a sore back. So make sure you push with your leg, and use your leg to lift the soil. It looks like our hole is just about done. Now, it's time to plant.

First step, is to add some fertilizer. Just scatter it. And then mix it into the soil. You don't want to use too much. Next, we're going to add the bulbs. Just nestle them down, again, making sure they're root end down, and also try to make sure, as you go, that you're not lining them up in perfect little lines. It doesn't look very natural that way. Keep going. You can put some close together, some a little further apart. There now, we're just about done. We've got space for one more, I think, in this hole. There you go.

Now the last thing is to backfill. Take the soil plunk it on top, being careful not to knock anybody over, if you can help it. That's about it. The last step would be watering. I'm not going to water because we're getting some rain tonight, but the bulbs do need some water sometime soon. So if there's no rain in your forecast, make sure you give them a good drink. Though they're dormant now, they grow nice root systems to support the flowers in the spring, so you want to make sure they do get some water. Well, that was it. Next spring we're going to have some beautiful daffodils brightening up the garden. I'm Kristin Schleiter from howdini.com.