'No Dig" Bulb Planting

"No Dig" Planting of 'Pink Perfection' Tulips

Digging all the holes to plant 25, 100, or 500 tulip bulbs can be a backbreaking chore. It doesn’t have to be that way. 

More than a decade ago, plant researchers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, developed a planting method called “top-planting”. It eliminates all the digging and the tulips come back and bloom well for several years.

Top-planting, also called “drop and cover,” is a planting technique that requires a lot less effort.

No Dig bulb planting is a lot simpler:

·         Choose a site in full sun and good soil drainage.

·         Till the planting area 3 to 4 inches deep with a roto-tiller.

·         Spread bulb fertilizer and lightly till in the fertilizer (optional).

·         Set the bulbs on top of the tilled area (no need to press the bulb into the ground).

·         Cover with 2 to 4 inches of composted mulch or aged compost.

·         No Dig works as well for daffodils as tulips.

Do not over-mulch. Adding more mulch will result in less blooms. Any good garden compost or double ground bark mulch should work. Brent Heath with Brent and Becky’s Bulbs in Gloucester, VA recommends adding  two inches of mulch in the fall of each year.


Bulb Spacing: Tulip (or daffodil) bulbs should be spaced 3 times the bulb size or 6 inches apart. That’s 4 bulbs per square foot.

Tulip varieties that perennialize well are recommended, particularly Darwin hybrids. They will regrow and re-bloom for several years. Again, don't forget to add 2-3 inches of new pine bark chips or pine needles to replace depleted mulch additions from past years.

Caveat: dormant tulips and daffodils like to spend their summers in dry soil. Too much irrigation during the summer months may rot the sleeping bulbs.

July/August Blooming Plumleaf Azaleas

July/August Blooming Plumleaf Azalea

Plumleaf azalea (Rhododendron prunifolium) is a deciduous azalea that is native to  Georgia and Alabama mountains (USDA hardiness zones 6-9). It is one of the signature plants of Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia.

Their bright orange-red flowers surprise in late July into early Augusta and may last for 2 weeks or more. Compared to many other spring blooming native azaleas, flowers are not fragrant. Spring and summer foliage is medium-green and is mostly blemish-free.

Fall leaf color is also uneventful. Insect and disease problems are rare if the plant is properly sited. 

This 5-8 feet tall and wide shrub performs best in morning sunlight and shaded from the harsh afternoon summer sun. It thrives in well-drained, compost amended soil. Plumleaf azalea prospers in the calcareous clay soils found in the Appalachian region without pH correction.  Plant in full-day light shade in zones 7-9. Set the shrub into a shallow wide dug hole that has been generously amended with compost and/or peat.

Feed in early spring with a slow-release fertilizer such as Osmocote™ or Nutricote™. An alternative nutrition program is to use a water soluble product such as Miracle-Gro™ or Jack's™  in early spring and again in early summer. Maintain 2-3 inches of a pine-based mulch around the base of the shrub. Irrigate plant(s) the first 2 years of establishment.

Plumleaf azalea blooms on new current season's wood. Prune deciduous azaleas anytime after bloom to maintain a desired height and spread. Plumleaf azalea is primarily available at local native plant nurseries or is offered online.

Plumleaf azaleas are usually available from mail order companies on-line.

Turn Yard Wastes into Black Gold

Compost tumbler

Leaf raking is a major chore in October and November. You may rake by hand or attach a mulching blade to your lawn. Most folks opt to using leaf blowers and push leaves to curbside. Protect your ears with plugs or headphones.

Compost is often called "black gold". It is a smart move to gather up leaf litter and twigs. Much of the debris from the vegetable and flower garden can be thrown into the compost pile. Leaves, grass clippings and green table scraps can be processed into rich humus. Never add diseased plant materials or meat scraps.

Compost heaps appear in many shapes and sizes. The simplest and most common is a back corner of the yard out of sight, a collection of several years of garden refuse. Homemade reinforced wire bins are common, a large receptacle of garden waste. Home and garden centers sell composters of various sizes including tumblers that will speed decomposition. You can also purchase special packets of microorganisms that hasten the decaying process.

At Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville, Tennessee are displays of several methods of composting garden refuse. It is not true that rodents such as rats, voles and moles may make their homes in compost piles unless proper sanitation measures are followed.

Gardeners can turn garden debris into black compost in as little as 6 weeks with adequate moisture, aeration and nutrition; or simply pile up your garden waste and wait 2-3 years for compost.

Mulching- Not Always a Good Practice

A generation of gardeners have extolled the benefits of mulching around trees and flower beds. Sometimes, mulching is not a good practice.

Often, a heavy clay soil retains too much moisture over the winter months. Some dryland perennials, such as cheddar pinks (dianthus), euphorbia, and delospermum, prefer dry to moderately wet winter soils. Amending with coarse sand improves soil drainage, but adding mulch may be counter-productive.

Quality mulch contains very little cellulose (wood) fiber. A wood based mulch attracts structural wood -feeding insects such as termites, carpenter ants, and wood beetles. Wood-based mulches should not be spread around home foundations.

Fresh wood-based mulch grabs up available soil nitrogen. Nitrogen -starved plants appear yellowed (chlorotic). You may need to apply 2-4 times the amount of fertilizer to counteract the wood mulch.

Piling up mulch around the base of trees, called "mulch volcanoes", will damage tree trunks. Surface roots are deprived of oxygen. Often, weak adventitious roots grow in the mulch. When the mulch dries out, the weak roots die and scar the trunk.

Young fruit trees should not be mulched in the fall and winter where field mice (voles) are suspected. The voles create a home in the mulch and feed on live roots and soft tree bark.