Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Naturalizing Daffodils

I have 800 daffodil bulbs to plant this week or next.  It seems that I do it differently each and every time I plant bulbs.  This year I have 3 swaths envisioned.  I've hired someone to brush hog at the far side of our big hay field.  Now that the raspberries are cut down, it is going to be roto-tilled and then I'm going to plant in 3 long drifts.  I plant by digging down as far as I can go with a conventional shovel and turning one big shovel-ful of earth out of the hole.   Then I put in 5 to 7 bulbs and backfill.  I've found that if I fertilize at the time I plant, skunks, especially, will dig up the bulbs trying to get at the organic fertilizer.   Instead, I fertilize in the spring by broadcasting.  I've found that if I don't rototill first and I'm planting in established sod, it's very hard digging.

Most of mine are in areas where there is lawn of sod or even hay.  I would say they do better without the competition from the grass roots but in a deciduous woods there are all the tree roots.  I just have to delay mowing until the foliage turns yellow.   In the hay field, usually they don't get mowed until all the other hayfields are done so it seems to work out.

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