Garden Bulb Digger

[LouisFerdinand]

Do you use a Garden Bulb Digger when you plant daffodil and tulip bulbs?

 

[DirtMechanic]

I have a tent stake auger that I cut the end off of so I could chuck it into my drill. I did this because its about 30 inches long so bending is reduced.

 

[LouisFerdinand]

 

[Peace perfect peace]

Hi Louis,
Nice to talk to you again,
Ive the very same bulb planter as you see in the video, it was'nt cheap and to be very honest unless your planting bed/border/ Lawn has some very dry soil/compost the bulb planter bowl fills up and its a pain in the butt trying to empty the last hole's contents,
Ive tried verious ideas from other gardeners such as having a bucket of water and dip the planter in it each time you push the bulb planter "empty" into the ground and the plug will come out easier (it did'nt) and again watching the video your doing a hell of a lot of bending putting plugs and bulbs into the hole you've just made,
I purchased a bore hole device from the garden centre thats designed to twist into the soil/clay what ever and the soil just lifts to the top of the ground and the soil breaks down as it comes to the surface So you have no filled and blocked bulb bowl planter to empty,
Its easy once the bulb is in place to rake the crumbled soil over the hole,
its about the same height shaft and if you do several holes and then get the kneeling pad out and place the bulbs into the holes you can even trowel the soil back,
I found this way was a lot easier on the bending down for hours, particualy if like myself your doing large areas of bulb planting.

INFO REF Bore hole tool,
The tool is really for making holes for fence post and you can buy all size's ref the tool, ive a 6inch hole size and this works well,

You can mark how deep you want to go down by using a bit of tapr around the metal shaft so you know how deep your bulbs are being planted,
Tip for Daffodil Planting,
if you plant daffodils make sure you plant them deep enough,
If you have the bulbs to near the surface they'll only give you leaves and no flowers,
They need to be planted at least 4inch down,

 

[LouisFerdinand]

@Peace perfect peace, I was taught that daffodil bulbs should be planted 6 inches deep.

 

[Peace perfect peace]

Louis hope your well,
Well ref 6 inch deep planting of daffodils,
Ask yourself this how many times have you seen or infact purchased a pot of daffodils that the complete pot was'nt 6inch deep from the rim of the pot to the bottom? yet the daffodils are still in flower?

Anser to this question, because the bulbs we're planted very young and very small hence they did'nt need to be planted 6inch deep &
the flower heads we're a small head not a large head, "small bulb small flower head"

But if your planting daffodils to be in the bed /border as a perminant bulb? You'll soon find the bulbs grow larger year by year and they will if not deep enough not get enough food or root spread to enable them to flower, so its now you'll see lots of green but no flower head,
I feel better safe than sorry,
Now having said this their is another way to use your daffodils/tulip bulbs if you had them flowering away in plant pots etc,
After they've flowered put them in a corner (in the pots ie mine are now as we speak behind the pumphouse waiting for next springs return to the front of the house just as they did this year)
But you can just remove these complete bulb and compost and plant the lot as a clump in the garden to the depth you feel is deep enough for them to flower next year. As i said 4inch or deeper ,not less than 4inch.

 

[LouisFerdinand]

 

[SeniorCitizen]

I prefer getting down close to the dirt and still use the gardening trowel that was my wife's grandmothers. It was lost for a few years and I found it in a flower bed when a garden rake made a clank noise on something metal.

The original Pine handle was well worn when lost and being buried in the dirt a few years tipped the scales for a new handle. I happened to have a small piece of 100 year old Osage Orange fence post left from other small wood working projects so the poor old girl got a new handle about 20 years ago that will last a long time even if she gets lost again in the dirt.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I prefer getting down close to the dirt and still use the gardening trowel that was my wife's grandmothers. It was lost for a few years and I found it in a flower bed when a garden rake made a clank noise on something metal.

The original Pine handle was well worn when lost and being buried in the dirt a few years tipped the scales for a new handle. I happened to have a small piece of 100 year old Osage Orange fence post left from other small wood working projects so the poor old girl got a new handle about 20 years ago that will last a long time even if she gets lost again in the dirt.

If you can find one of those both stiff and light weight, its a keeper in my book.