Garden Talk: Planting And Creating A Bulb Lawn

Air Date:
Heard On The Larry Meiller Show
Photo: Public Domain

Spring is here, and it’s time to get planting. If you’re looking for something new this year, why not try a bulb lawn? Our guest talks about how to create a beautiful bulb lawn, as well as why you should keep a garden diary in order to properly plan your bulb order for 2017.

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  • Bulb Lawns Offer Plenty Of Beauty But Can Be Challenging

    Spring is here, and bulbs are starting to pop out of the ground. And if anyone planted a bulb lawn last fall, they’re about to start reaping the rewards.

    “If you can picture things like daffodils and snowdrops essentially popping right up through your turf … all of these bulbs are sort of hovering and floating and dancing above that nice green tapestry,” said Ben Futa, director of Allen Centennial Garden, describing the look of a spring bulb lawn.

    For amateur and master gardeners alike, creating one’s own bulb lawn can be a challenging, yet rewarding experience.

    A bulb lawn can be a great option if you’re putting in a brand new lawn, or redoing a current lawn space. Futa said there’s much less work required better when you start with a blank slate over existing turf.

    “It’s much easier to plant straight into that soil, but it’s still certainly possible to plant directly into turf,” he said.

    Futa said bulbs that are planted now will be summer display bulbs — things like gladiolus, cannas and dahlias.

    Over time, the bulb lawn should only get better.

    “All of these bulbs are nice, low-growing, naturalizing bulbs,” Futa said. “They should colonize and spread, and within a couple of years, the lawn will just be solid purples and blues and whites.”

    However, some bulbs will need to occasionally be replanted, especially tulips, the spring favorite that’s usually planted in the fall.

    “Tulips, I would say, are a dicey choice as far as a long term display,” Futa said. “I would plan to replant every two to three years to continue the display.”

    Kaufmanniana tulips, however, will naturalize and can be pretty much left alone.

    If someone already has a bulb lawn, it can be easy to sit back, relax and watch the bulbs pop up this time of year. But Futa said people should also be actively thinking ahead to autumn.

    “It’s a very good time of year to analyze,” he said. “I think a lot of us, of course, aren’t thinking about the bulb orders we’re going to place in October, but this is when we actually need to think about it, because we can see the gaps or the holes or where we need more color.”

    For inspiration, Futa recommended visiting Allen Centennial Garden, which is featuring a brand new bulb lawn this year.

    “We installed over 3,000 bulbs in our English Garden lawn last year, so those are just now coming into full bloom and it’s a wonderful tapestry right now,” he said.

    More information about the Garden, which is located on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, can be found on their webpage.

Episode Credits

  • Larry Meiller Host
  • Chris Malina Producer
  • Jill Nadeau Producer
  • Ben Futa Guest

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