How long to plant 250 bulbs?

[WhatAWasteOfOranges]

Lost my head a bit and ordered 250 bulbs to plant this autumn. Will I ever actually manage to get them all in the ground?! Will be going into a lawn area - any recommended tools? Seem so many bulb planter tools.

Ages, I would say. Roughly.

What have you ordered?

Are you going to make a sentence out of them???

You could write something quite inventive...

I can't answer your question on how long it will take, but I love this bulb planter:
greenfingers.com/p50785/kent_and_stowe_carbon_steel_hand_bulb_planter.aspx

It really depends on your soil and whether its recently rained and the soil is soft or rock hard! Will you be removing the lawn and making it a garden area, or letting the bulbs grow up through the grass?

I planted a similar amount last year when I moved house. The ground prep took the longest time, so took over a week, an hour or so each day. I planted in several area, plus in pots. I discovered that 1 area of ground had previously been covered in pebbles, so it was almost impossible to dig through it. Another area, was almost complete roots! If you are able to lift the lawn and there are no large roots etc in the soil, you will likely get them in quicker. A maddock can help if you are planting in rows.

I know a bloke who works for wildlife/conservation orgs who planted a lot of crocus bulbs in some grass verges - he said he made the holes with a drill and a large bit.

It’s to cover a stretch 25m long 2m wide to the side of one of the lawns that is currently mowed but I will let grow wild once the bulbs get going. They are a mix of crocus and iris bulbs. We won’t be doing anything to this bit of the garden for a couple of years so I just wanted to add something low maintenance to brighten it up a bit.

Sounds like I’m best to plant them after rain so ground is softer? (Perfect year for it then 😅)

I worked one day a week as a gardener for a couple of years and had to plant 600 bulbs once on my own . I cut a squares of turf first where the bulbs were to go then followed with placing the bulbs in the holes and then covered them all up afterwards. I could see where I was and assess the spread of the planting doing it this way and prevented me from going back on myself if you see what I mean. If you cover up as you go along you risk re digging up newly planted bulbs

Genius idea, lifting squares of turf!

OP if you want it meadow-like, maybe get some seeds down while you go? What kind of wildflowers were you thinking?

This site had good advice I thought.

wildseed.co.uk/page/preparation-for-sowing-into-gaps-created-in-existing-vegetation

I planted 800 bulbs last year and will do more this year, although some went in pots (very quick). Iris (assuming you mean iris reticulata which flowers in February) and crocus bulbs are not planted deep so I don’t think will take long per bulb. Crocuses are attractive to squirrels so try not to make it obvious the soil has been disturbed.

If you need to do it in shorter chunks, I’d break the area down into rough quadrants and throw and then plant the bulbs in one quadrant at a time. If your planning on turning the area into a meadow I’d also consider Narcissus for March, tulips for April, Dutch iris and camassia for May, wild gladlioli and allium spaerocephalon for June. You can plant things in a bulb lasagna under the grass (allowing for naturalising). That’s what I’m going to retroactively do this year, but will prob destroy existing bulbs as I do so.

DH reckons about a couple of hours.

DH says any bulb planter, but the long handled ones are obviously easier, but expensive.

It took dh and I about two hours to plant about 200 bulbs last year. He drilled the holes, I planted them. It was back breaking work but worth it.

Also, if your ground is rocky then a normal bulb planter won’t work. I used this www.gardenmachinerydirect.co.uk/hand-tools/wolf-garten-weedingplanting-knife.html
And just slotted the bulb into the grass, stuck some compost in if their was a hole left and then pulled the grass back in place. For a bulb lasagna I would life the grass as previous poster said.

With a couple of bulb planters (preferably one you buy from Amazon and one of the human kind to help) I'd guess a morning at most? Although it will depend a bit on the bulbs - camassias will take longer than crocus.

For a really big job you could hire a turf cutter and strip the turf off the whole area then roll it back on after you've popped in the bulbs. In fact why not order another 250 and do that for a really breathtaking display?

bulb lasagne = big bulbs at the deepest level, smaller bulbs over those, so you get a mix of flowers in the same patch. You need quite a lot of bulbs; can be lovely. Many 'recipes'/ideas in the Sarah Raven catalogue for inspiration.

he said he made the holes with a drill and a large bit

They’re called an auger! Not used one but this American gardening YouTube channel
I follow uses them for planting everything. I think if you have loads to do or very hard ground they probably make sense. I feel like on my garden scale it would take me longer to faff getting the drill set up than just getting on and planting.

Although I have around 320 bulbs arriving soon too, and not planned where they’re going yet…..!

Purplewithred has it right, although my bulb lasagne will be done to extend the display for as long as possible, not necessarily create a dense one.

I use sarahraven for inspiration (and seeds) but buy bulbs from Dutchbulbs as they are much cheaper in bulk.

A bulb lasagne! I started this thread thinking I had ordered too many bulbs but now you’re making me think I don’t have enough! Off to browse…. My husband is going to think I’ve really lost the plot!

Thanks for all the advice so far 😊

Three people can plant 500 daffodil bulbs in a field in 2.5 hours.

With something small like crocuses you’ll be planting 3 to a hole. Try to resist planting 5 or 7 to a hole as the day drags on

@MereDintofPandiculation

Three people can plant 500 daffodil bulbs in a field in 2.5 hours.

With something small like crocuses you’ll be planting 3 to a hole. Try to resist planting 5 or 7 to a hole as the day drags on

This sounds like a primary maths problem

Three people can plant 500 daffodil bulbs in a field in 2.5 hours
How long will it take two people to plant 400 bulbs on a Tuesday if the field faces west?

Some soil (or compost in pots) between. The rule of thumb is that bulbs are planted at a depth of 2-3 times their size, so we could carry on the maths class to work out how the layers should work for various different sizes.