Gardens, Green Thumbs, and Autumn

It is time to plant your bulbs. Now is the time to put your green thumb (if it isn't green, that's ok... start your garden today, and soon enough you'll be green too!) to work and put those flower bulbs in the soil. When spring returns, you'll be rewarded with beautiful colorful flowers.

Tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, freesias, and narcissus are good choices to plant now in order to ensure a springtime bouquet. Planting the bulbs is easy. Simply dig a small hole, sprinkle in some bulb food or bone meal in the hole, drop in the bulb, and cover with rich soil. That's about it. Rain during the winter months should be sufficient enough water for the dormant bulbs. There should be no need to water until the plants are growing in the spring. You might want to plant some flowers that do well in cooler weather above the bulbs. This way you will have color in your garden until the spring flowers bloom.

When planning your garden, remember to select bulbs that will have different height flowers in spring. Plant the bulbs with the tallest blooming flower in the background and bulbs that will have medium height flowers can be planted in front. Small-growing bulbs should be planted in the foreground.

One choice for a tall flower is the Bearded Iris. The gorgeous bloom spikes of this flower can reach up to 3 feet tall. They are a very dependable spring blooming bulb, and come in many different colors. There are many medium-height blooming bulbs that you can choose from at your local nursery. These can be planted just about anywhere in your garden. The foreground of your garden can be planted with bulbs such as crocus and grape hyacinth.

If you are hoping to have some fragrance in your spring garden, consider freesias. They are one of the most fragrant bulbs, and will bloom well year after year. These fragrant flowers come in shades of white, pink, red, salmon, purple and blue. Another choice for fragrant flowers is the narcissus. They blossom in shades of white and yellow. They can grow to about twelve inches tall. Hyacinths are fragrant as well. They come in blue, yellow, white, purple and pink.

Foliage at the end of the bloom cycle should not be picked off...even though you may have the urge to do so! Instead, let the foliage die back naturally on the plant. Nutrients are in the foliage and will be stored in the bulb until they bloom again the following spring. The bulbs will go back under the ground and remain dormant until the next spring.

A nice thing about the bulbs you plant is that they will most likely multiply! Twelve daffodils planted this year will probably give twenty-four plants the next year. In two years, you'll have thirty-six plants! That kind of return on one's initial investment should inspire anyone to turn his or her thumb green!