I know what your thinking – it’s far too cold and windy to be outside planting anything right now, but let me tell you this is exactly the right time to be planting the only set of flowers that will guarantee you a big fat smile in the darkest, coldest days of January.
When you see the tiniest clean growth of leaves popping through frost encrusted soil nothing lifts your spirit more, knowing that Spring is just around the corner and winter is coming to an end.
There is one more, very good reason for planting bulbs – you can help the nectar loving insects, especially the bees. By the middle of winter bees, especially bumble bees and other solitary bees are very hungry, having lost most sources of nectar by late autumn they are in need of desperate help of food by February and March. If they don’t find food, that’s it for the little flyers – they die and the more that die the less insects we’ll have to pollinate the rest of our food and crops later on in the year.
So it seems to me we need to give bees as much help as possible as early on in the year and guess what – bulbs do the trick!
Bulbs (and corns) have got to be the easiest thing to plant – ever! You buy a pack of bulbs – supermarkets, pound shops, on-line, garden centres, and of course local nurseries. Here is how I plant mine:
I’ve chosen corns – crocuses. Not only is the color stunningly beautiful but the crocus flower is smothered in pollen by March.
Step 1
Buy your bulbs, you soil and your pot (unless of course you’ve got that already!)
Step 2
Fill the pot 2/3rds full of compost and add in the bulbs or corns – pointy bit sticking upwards
Step 3
Cover the bulbs with soil – enough that you’ve covered the size of the bulb twice. So for those crocuses, that’s about 7-9cm’s (3-4 inches) of soil.
Step 4
Water the soil and put the pot in a place that is relatively sheltered from frost (to stop the pot cracking), until the little shoots begin to appear.
And away you go…let save the planet
