Suit your own personal taste

Knitting, embroidering, ceramics: people love making their own things. This is because we can be really proud – and rightfully so – of things we’ve made ourselves, and also because people are less interested in mass-produced things these days. If you plant summer bulbs in your garden now, you’ll be creating your own natural flower-filled oasis – exactly the way you think it will look best. Will it be lushly planted with flowers in many different colors, or will it have a crisp simple design with a limited color palette? It’s all up to you.

Enjoyment right from the start

Planting summer bulbs means enjoyment from the time you plant them all the way through their flowering period. Actually, it starts even before that when selecting which flower bulbs you want. Then comes the fun of planting them and after that the icing on the cake while you watch them grow and bloom. Maybe you enjoy doing things together? If so, invite your friends, children or other family members to help. Later, looking back, you can all enjoy and be proud of the results of your little planting project.

Getting started

What’s the first step? First of all, look into which kinds of summer bulbs you think are beautiful. If you need help, take a look at the list of the eighteen most familiar summer bulbs. Information about when they flower and around how tall they will grow is given for each one. This is useful when deciding the best place to plant each kind of summer bulb. Once you’ve selected the kinds you want, you’ll have to choose the colors you like best. Dahlias, lilies, calla lilies and gladioli come in every color you can imagine.

Planting

Once you’ve brought your summer bulbs home, it’s time to get busy in the garden. Summer bulbs should be planted in the spring. The best time for this is between March and May, before there’s no more chance of freezing temperatures. Follow the three steps in planting summer bulbs, and you’ll be proud as a peacock while enjoying your flowering garden.

Step 1

Use a trowel to dig a hole in the soil. Summer bulbs, corms and tubers should be planted at a depth twice their own size. Begonias and dahlias, however, are exceptions. They should be planted just below the surface of the soil.

Step 2

Plant small summer bulbs around 4 inches apart. Five inches is a good distance for gladioli, 10 inches for begonias, 12 inches for lilies, and even 16 inches for dahlias. Place the flower bulbs gently into the soil without pressing on them.

Step 3

Cover the flower bulbs with soil. As soon as the summer bulbs have been planted, give them a good dousing with water so that their roots can develop quickly. If the spring is dry, it would be a good idea to keep the soil in the garden moist.

Tip: About an hour before planting, place the bulbs in water so that they can absorb any water they might have lost. This will accelerate the rooting process and get growth off to a better start.