Martha Just Planted Thousands of Spring-Blooming Bulbs on Her Farm—See the Process Here

While spring is still months away, Martha has been busy preparing her farm for the season's arrival. In a recent post on the Martha Blog, Martha says she plants thousands and thousands of bulbs around her farm every autumn, which will bloom once winter ends. "I always find it exciting to plant bulbs in the fall that you won't see for many months—it's such a wonderful surprise of color when they bloom in spring," she writes.

Martha orders plenty of bulbs every year, not only for her farm in Bedford but also for her gardens at Skylands, her home in Maine. This year, Martha selected bulbs from two Connecticut-based companies—Van Engelen Inc., a wholesale family-run flower bulb business in Bantam, and Colorblends, a third-generation wholesale flower merchant in Bridgeport.

Planting spring-blooming bulbs in the fall gives the bulbs time to grow roots during winter. On Martha's farm, the planting process starts with her head gardener, Ryan McCallister, sorting all the bulbs in her garden library and organizing them by type and planting location.

There are several different tools Martha and her gardeners use depending on the size of the bulb. "My gardeners use T-handled dibbers, which are pressed into the soil to make holes, and traditional bulb planters with 6-inch barrels for removing soil and then dropping it back into the hole over the bulb," she writes. "There are also garden auger drill bits which are very helpful for making bigger holes or for working in hard soil."

To keep her soil nutrient-rich, Martha works organic Bulb-tone fertilizer into the top few inches of soil before planting. "The food should be a balanced fertilizer that has a good amount of phosphorous," she writes. "Fertilizing spring-blooming bulbs also helps them fight off diseases and pests."

When planting, each bulb is placed in a hole about 3 to 5 inches deep. Martha explains that the dibber is perfect for planting the bulbs she chose this year. One by one, each bulb is carefully placed in a hole, with the pointed end face up. "This is very important, so the plant grows properly from the bulb," she writes. "If it is planted upside down, the flower will still grow, but it will likely take longer."

Once planted, each hole is backfilled and covered with soil to ensure the bulb is completely buried. In the spring, the beds on Martha's farm will be filled with blooming flowers. "I hope this inspires you to start planting some beautiful bulbs in your garden – there’s still time!"