This clever gardening tool makes bulb planting effortless

It’s simple to get carried away shopping for spring bulbs. I bagged some at my native backyard centre, picked up extra whereas grocery procuring at Lidl, and to not point out the bulbs saved away within the shed from this spring. However relating to planting all of them out, it may be back-breaking work, so I used to be intrigued after I noticed QVC’s long-handled bulb planter.

Whereas the best way to plant spring bulbs in containers is fairly simple, planting them within the floor in flower beds and borders might be arduous work, with a lot of bending down that may be a pressure on the again, particularly should you’re planting bulbs en masse (like me). So a software that guarantees to be back-friendly and make bulb-planting faster and simpler too…I used to be undoubtedly up for giving it a go.

September and October are good instances for planting bulbs for spring, particularly with bulbs like daffodils and alliums, that are what I’ve been placing within the floor. However to keep away from rookie bulb-planting errors, I received’t plant tulips this early, saving them till November to plant out.

Utilizing the Bulb Planter

Conventional hand bulb-planters work by being pushed into the bottom to the specified depth, twisted to loosen the core of soil, and the soil is then eliminated, and the bulb is popped into the ensuing gap. The plug of soil is then changed on high. The method is all very hands-on and includes a lot of kneeling on the bottom and bending down, which might be arduous on the knees and the again.

The attraction of the long-handled bulb planter is that it guarantees to can help you plant bulbs in backyard borders from a standing place, thus lowering the pressure in your again and knees.

With a deal with constructed from conventional hardwood for sturdiness, it feels stable and pretty snug to carry.

The bulb-planting a part of the software has a cheery crimson outer coating with a pointy carbon metal reducing head on the backside that slices via the soil to take away a plug of earth, leaving a 6cm huge x 10cm deep gap.

All you must do is place the round head the place you need your gap to be, urgent down firmly on the again lever together with your foot in order that the top is pushed deep into the soil (which cuts the outlet).

The mixture of the lengthy deal with to maintain you balanced and upright and the foot lever that permits you to exert loads of pressure pushing the bulb planter in, makes it pretty simple to create the outlet (and fewer pressure on the again). The one issues I had had been when the reducing head encountered stones in my soil (as it’s fairly stony), which made it troublesome to push the bulb planter in, however all that was wanted was just a little wiggling round to keep away from the stones. And it was a doddle after I tried it out on softer floor.

When you’ve gone in as deep as you require, you merely pull the bulb planter out of the soil utilizing the wood deal with and you’re left with a neat gap lower out of the bottom (with a plug of soil retained inside the reducing head).

I discovered that it labored higher if the soil was barely damp which gave a cleaner lower. Too dry and the soil is a bit unfastened and crumbly.

The directions advise that that can assist you get right into a rhythm and keep away from repeated bending, you shouldn’t must cease and take away the plug of earth every time – the following lower will push it out. The thought is to make as many holes as you want, then merely kneel all the way down to plant the bulbs earlier than changing the soil.

This was the a part of the method that was just a little bit difficult, because the plug of earth typically wanted a little bit of assist in extracting it from the top of the bulb planter. What labored greatest for me was having a protracted stick at hand to push the plug of soil out, after which with the plug deposited on the bottom subsequent to the outlet, I may transfer on to the following gap and so forth.

As soon as all of the holes have been lower out, it’s then only a matter of popping your bulbs in, which can clearly require a little bit of bending down.

With the bulbs planted within the holes, all that’s wanted is to switch the plugs of soil again into the holes to cowl up the bulbs. I used a hoe to softly nudge the soil again in place.

The bulb planter can be utilized to plant to a depth of 11cm, which must be deep sufficient for many bulb varieties. Whereas there isn’t a depth gauge on the planter, I discovered it pretty simple to guage how deep to go, if, as an illustration, you needed to differ the depth for the way deep to plant tulips or totally different styles of bulbs.

The sharp carbon metal reducing head of the planter might be re-sharpened to take care of its effectivity over time.

The decision? I discovered the bulb-planter an enormous assist for when you have got a lot of bulbs to plant on the similar time in flower beds, or if you wish to plant some deeper in amongst the foliage. Whereas getting the plugs of earth out of the planter was just a little difficult at first, when you get the knack and into your rhythm, it’s not an issue in any respect.

Store these bulb planter options

If this long-handled bulb planter is not fairly what you are in search of, we’ve got a couple of options you possibly can store as a substitute.

Will you be investing in a long-handled bulb planter? If not, what’s your favorite bulb-planging software? Tell us within the feedback!