Plant bulbs now for spring blooms

Fall is the best time to plant bulbs for bountiful spring blooms. Sometimes just the fall cleanup of up your property seems like a lot, but if your outside anyway (or if you hired a professional landscaper to do the difficult work),  you might consider planting bulbs - it's fairly easy. Whether you’re an advanced gardener, or just starting to get your hands dirty, bulbs tend to be foolproof. This allows you to put more focus into the design of your garden rather than the actual work.

Here are a few tips that might help you this fall in both planting and designing your spring flower garden:

• Plant bulbs with the point up.
• Follow instructions for how deep to plant your bulbs (most are from 5 to 8 inches).
• Don't bother with fertilizer the first year. Bulbs are packed with enough nutrients to flourish the first year. In fact, adding fertilizer to the planting hole may cause the bulb to burn.
• Rather than planting bulbs in lone areas throughout your yard, plant them in clusters. This gives a concentrated, colorful impact.
• For flowers that will bloom around the same time, plant the bulbs for shorter flowers in front of taller flowers. Most bulbs you purchase should include information on the flower height. This allows you to have the best view of every beautiful bloom, rather than some getting hidden by others.
• If you have flowers that bloom at different times, you may want to plant taller flowers that bloom later in front of shorter flowers that have already bloomed and are fading. This might mask any dying foliage behind it.

​Most importantly, have fun with your fall gardening. An autumn weekend or two in the soil will help your garden or yard look beautiful next spring. If you’d like someone else to do your fall cleanup, so you can focus on planting, give Gardenin’ Angels a call at 774-284-1171. We service nearly all towns throughout the south shore, and our fall cleanup includes removal of leaves, removal of brush/debris, weeding, thatch removal, watering of plants/trees and a thorough garden bed clean-out.