Its time to plant bulbs! Our bulb order was a little late coming so we are a little later than usual but as long as the ground hasn't frozen solid yet its ok.
We are going to plant our spring bulbs in the same beds that currently have Dahlias. The recent freezes have finished off the Dahlias.
When we plant the Dahlias we prep the beds so its easier to plant the spring bulbs. We are planting in an area that was previously part of the gravel driveway so we have to add soil. Digging up a gravel driveway it tough work 馃槄
This is what a healthy Dahlia looks like. We will divide the tubers before replanting next spring. Dahlias are not hardy enough to survive the Vermont winter and have to be dug up each fall and kept in a cool dry place over the winter then replanted in the spring.
We dug up two 5 gallon buckets of Dahlias this year lol When we first planted them 3 years ago we planted about 25 tubers.
Off to the forest to dump the dead foliage.
Now for the main event. First you have to dig out the topsoil. This is the topsoil we added when planting the Dahlias. You can see the gravel underneath.
My wife brought 300 bulbs this year 馃檮 so the Dahlia beds aren't going to be big enough. When expanding the hole, I separated the top soil from the gravel I dug out. The gravel I hauled away to use as fill in a different project. The top soil could be reused.
Once the hole was expanded we add a layer of good soil.
Then we add in some fertilizer, we use Bulb Tone. We planted 4 different beds. I sometimes used different beds for this post to illustrate each step thats why this bed is shaped different than in the photo before (and after).
We mix the fertilizer into the soil and then use the Garden Weasel to level it out.
We used a little table we move around to sort out the bulbs. We ordered tulips, daffodils, crocus, hyacinths, iris and anemone.
Now you can actually plant some bulbs! the depth is important and it varies by bulb type.
Because bulbs are planted at different depths, we added some soil then put some more bulbs in. Then we used the topsoil from the excavation to fill up to ground level. Finally we watered them in. We also put some chicken wire over the new bed to discourage squirrels until the ground freezes hard.
Here's a view of the beds we are working in from last spring. In fact you can see the gap where we planted Dahlias then swapped to bulbs.