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| Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard |
| Early spring-blooming bulbs are great for naturalizing in lawns and decorative grass plantings. You can even plant daffodils as along as you’re willing to hand-trim the surrounding grass. |
If you’ve ever seen an early spring yard covered in drifts of beautiful crocuses or snowdrops, you know what an amazing sight it is. These early signs of spring – bringing hope for greener things to come – help even the hardiest of gardeners get through yet another winter.
These scenes of springtime lawns in bloom are stunning in their simplicity and alive with so much color. Some gardeners stick to drifts of a single type of bulb (like crocus). Others revel in adding a variety of species to their yard, giving the impression that the plantings erupted spontaneously from the soil at the gardener’s beckon. Of course, the blooms aren’t at all spontaneous – in fact, there’s plenty of planning and planting involved. But overall, achieving this beautiful show of early spring color right from your lawn isn’t too difficult. The process of planting bulbs in this manner is called “naturalizing.” At its most basic definition, it simply means planting bulbs informally. You can simply throw markers over your shoulders with your eyes closed and let the chips fall where they may to give your planting a completely random broadcast that mimics nature’s “patterns.” The most important step in naturalizing is picking the right bulbs. It’s important to select only those species hardy in your climate (that way you can avoid having to lift and store scores of bulbs hidden in your turf each season). If you live in a cold-winter climate, naturalize early blooming spring bulbs in your lawn. By the time the grass requires mowing, glory-of-the-snow, snowdrop and squill will be entering dormancy, so you can safely cut the foliage and still be sure they’ve stored enough food until next spring. Once you’ve got the right bulbs, you’re ready to start planting. Gather stakes and string, a turf cutting tool, tarp, fertilizer, your bulbs (and their planting-depth information) and a bulb-planting tool and just follow the steps shown in the pictures and described in the captions to get started. | Add Photo to Journal |  | | Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard | | Step 1: Mark where you want to plant your bulb drifts or accents using stakes and plastic garden tape (or string). |
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