I used to think that bulbs were only for planting in the fall and seeing flowers in the spring, but learned this past summer that I was dead wrong. In fact, I was told by my new bulb friends that you can plant bulbs in the fall and spring and get a constant parade of flowers popping up late into the fall and kicking off again early in the spring (great for the lazy gardener as well!). When I heard this, I decided to ask for help and test it at my house in The Springs, NY. This post is just the beginning.
THE PLAN IN JUNE
First, I reached out to Mary Leigh Howell and Amy Dube of Dig Drop Done, to help me plan a summer planting. They told me what to do in the form of a planogram and I was SUPPOSED to get my bulbs in the ground in June. I was weeks and weeks late because I got slammed with work.
In July I finally jumped in and planted my first batch: a large assortment of Dahlias, Lilies and Calla Lilies (see planogram) and sat back. While I was too late to get most of the Lilies, the Dahlias and some Calla Lilies exploded in late August and were stunning and beautiful right through to a few weeks ago when the storm hit and finished the season. Here was my list for June planting:
Having learned from the first batch, I'm going to be much more on time with the next one and clear back some of my boxes so for a little more room. I'll let you know what has been recommended for planting.
My resource for all of this are the ladies at Dig Drop Done, an organization devoted to helping people plant bulbs. They have been incredibly helpful, and you can find all their links here:
>> DigDropDone.com
>> Dig Drop Done ideas on Pinterest
JULY
Planting in mid July
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
LAST DAYS OF OCTOBER BEFORE THE STORM
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So encouraging! Most people don't know that even inexperienced gardeners can get great results from bulbs. That's one reason they are a good project for children. Thanks for the link to Dig Drop Done.
I'm jealous of that cutting garden you've created. It's gorgeous.
Beautiful flowers! You make it seem so simple...but I know you did a lot of prep work and maintenance. I love the raised beds. You did a great job, thanks for sharing!
Of course gorgeous flowers, but what I'm really digging is your garden setup! I did a large raised bed with stepping stones down the center and fenced all the way around, and it's great but after one season I'm already planning out how to add on to it so I can grow everything I want. What you have is so much better.
Wow! After many years of failure, I finally went to my local nursery and asked the owner for a few plants that I couldn't possibly kill. He was a great guy and took pity on me. I'm laughing now, thinking of how proud I've been of keeping them alive over the last two years. I'm sure ANYONE could have done it. But now that I'm reading YOUR post, I'm totally encouraged, thinking that maybe I could try again. This post is terrific and your pictures are so beautiful.... You should be really, really proud of yourself. I'm so glad you shared this with the rest of us.
I'm assuming that's a drip system we are seeing -- would love to learn more about that!
Hi Frank! yes, it's a drip system that runs all summer for about 30 minutes in the middle of the night - each day. It's a basic system and doesn't cost too much, considering that it's responsible for keeping so much alive after so many days and dollars for planting. The folks who put it in are called Orchard Irrigation and this is a HUNTER system. http://www.orchardirrigation.com/products.html