How Deep To Plant Bulbs

If you know the simple technique, you can get a bulb to root, grow and flower in a glass vase indoors to brighten your home any time of year.If the term "forcing a bulb" seems a little violent, just think of the name as a shortcut for the process: growing...

Rotate the container periodically so each side gets equal access to the light to help tulips stand upright.Fresh water is a must for strong, healthy tulips. They'll stand upright in a tall, narrow vase, but can also be placed in floral foam for added...

Choose a site that gets filtered sunlight for ideal windflower growing.Soak your windflower bulbs, or tubers, in warm water overnight to prep them for planting the next day. Windflowers are an anemone, and are popular for their hardiness and wide availability.

Store bulbs in a cool, dry place until it's time to plant them in the fall.Plant bulbs in the fall when the ground has cooled.Plant your daffodil bulbs, pointed end up, after the soil has cooled in the fall.

Agapanthus plants, however, produce thickened rhizomes and not true bulbs. Despite their similarities, they are not from the same botanical family, but both have a treasured place in many gardens.The small, tightly packed flowers of allium contrast with...

Keep children and pets out of the area until the spray has dried. Dahlias only need a deep soaking about once a week, or twice a week if they are not mulched.If applied when symptoms first arise, fungicides may help prevent gray mold and powdery mildew...

Add 3 inches of compost and mix it to a depth of 6 inches.Dig a hole wide enough to accommodate the paperwhite bulb and 6 inches deep. The bulbs require no chilling period and are among the easiest to bloom, even in water, without soil.

Gently break the smaller bulb from the larger bulb. Plan to separate and transplant lilies in early fall, after the flowers fade and the leaves start to die back.Use a garden fork to dig under the bulbs and lift them from the soil.

Letting species tulips go to seed increases your stock as new bulbs eventually grow from the seeds. There are over 100 species of tulips and many more hybrids. As these plants leaf out they will grow up, arching over the unsightly, dying tulip foliage,...

The freesia flowers will have to be planted again from newly purchased bulbs.Freesias originate from southern Africa where the rainfall occurs mainly during the winter. Freesias tend to naturalize in coastal areas without freezing temperatures.

You can hardly go wrong, especially if what you want is a bed of bright yellow, non-stop flowers throughout the long, hot summer. Butter daisies are practically disease and insect free.

Keep the rooted plants in a cold place like an unheated garage or outbuilding. Over 300 insect species visit carrot flowers, including beneficial hoverflies and numerous small wasps.

Keep compost heaps and potting mixes covered to prevent blown-in seeds from settling. It's that combination of persistence and resistance that makes them so frustrating! Weeds employ some pretty underhand tactics to get the better of us: breaking off...

It can take two years or even longer for leaves to rot down enough to be considered leafmold. Simply adding organic matter to the soil surface can suppress weeds, help retain soil moisture, insulate roots from extremes of hot and cold, feed plants, and...

In this way, retaining logs or boards have what you might call a hugelkultur effect. Natural stone is often free if you live in a mountainous area, and as long as you stack a low wall so that it tilts slightly backward, into the slope, it should need...

I won't plant my garlic until October, but between now and then I might sow a quick mustard cover crop to suppress weeds, or use the broadfork to aerate the soil deep down, all the while throwing on more compost.

Simply lay these soft-skinned beauties, stem-side down and not touching, between two layers of breathable linen. Warmth loving crops can stall at lower temperatures, spluttering to a halt before they've crossed the finishing line.

Soft shoots can be pinched out with your thumb and forefinger. Photo by Jerzy Opiola In summer the leaves of infected plums take on a silvery sheen (although the leaves themselves are not infectious), then once the wood dies the bracket-shaped fungi appear,...

Thread the other end of the line through a darning needle then begin threading on your chillies. Well, after plenty of careful nurturing and a recent run of fine, warm weather, I'm delighted to say my first chilies are ready for picking.

Prioritize shady areas for crops that prefer cooler conditions, such as salad leaves. If your water source is some distance from your beds, it also means less walking back and forth.

If you thought growing potatoes was hugely satisfying, second-crop potatoes will prove even more so! Give your holiday season dinners a home-grown boost and try them for yourself. Set the seeds onto a layer of compost or potting soil about 10cm (4in)...

We need to thin them to just one or two fruits per cluster. Fewer, bigger fruits are generally more useful than many tiny fruits. Thin peaches in stages: to one fruit every four inches (10cm) once they reach the size of a hazelnut, then again at golf...

Yes, really! In a bad outbreak a handheld vacuum can be very effective at sucking up clouds of whitefly from disturbed leaves. Flowers will help to draw hoverflies and other greenhouse whitefly predators to your garden Other Greenhouse Whitefly Predators...

Feeding plants costs money but does mean more fruits of better quality, so the investment is well worth it. Beans will also stop producing more pods if the existing ones are left to ripen to biological maturity – by forming seeds, the plants will have...

Despite my tongue-in-cheek warfare references, it's important to remember that we're not really in a war against pests. A pest is just a creature that likes the same food we do, so show some tolerance, protect what crops you can, and use nature's own...

Cabbage heads, or hearts, can be rounded or conical, with leaves that are light green, dark green, red or purple. Keep the soil moist. Either way is totally delicious! Cabbages you've grown yourself are undeniably sweeter and crunchier than anything you...

For this, nothing beats a water feature. Easy DIY Drinks Cooler On hot summer days don't forget to quench your thirst with all manner of smoothies, cordials and lemonades made from garden-grown fruits and herbs.