planting fall bulbs

A couple of weekends ago I started planting my fall bulbs. I thought I'd get them all in, but it turned out to be a bigger job thn I realized. I planted 75 bulbs in my front and side yard and then decided to take a break and do the rest next weekend. I thought I'd wait to post this until I finished planting the all bulbs, but I'm not getting to it very fast. The rest are still sitting in bags. Hopefully I'll finish this weekend.

To plant the bulbs I did like I've seen my dad do. (he's a Dutchman who was in the bulb import and gardening business - and pretty good at planting bulbs. In past years I guess he has planted mine for me, so that's why I thought it was easier .... ) Anyway, I laid the bulbs in the grass next to where I wanted to plant them. I set out piles of the number and type I wanted to plant. Then I drove the shovel in to a good 8 inches, lifted it to the side an inch, then slipped in 2 bulbs per shovel. I repeated this to plant a nice clump of 5-8 bulbs. (I've also seen my dad scatter handfuls of bulbs and then plant them where they fell for a natural scattered look.)

I also realized that I was unable to remember what I was planting where. So I decided to put together a garden plan. I diagrammed my whole yard, front and back, using a combination of powerpoint and handdrawing. I figure this may be useful for other plantings. Its on the computer, so I can reuse it in future years by deleting this years bulbs.

planting&planning