How to Naturalize Bulbs in a Lawn

A vast expanse of manicured grass is the most common, and boring, type of lawn. Planting bulbs in your lawn adds bright spring color to your yard and helps the lawn blend into the landscape. Many spring blooming bulbs naturalize, which means they not only come up year after year, but over time they produce more bulbs and spread in a way that looks natural.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Trowel
• Bulbs

1. Large drifts of naturalized bulbs look best under deciduous trees and at the edge of lawns, where they create a transition zone between your grass and your garden beds. Small, early season bulbs, including crocus and grape hyacinth, naturalize in lawns better than daffodils.

2. In early fall, choose the areas of your lawn where you want bulbs to bloom in spring. Create a natural, random placement of the bulbs by throwing a handful of them onto the grass and planting the bulbs where they land.

3. To plant, cut a small flap in the lawn with a sharp trowel and peel back the grass. Plant the bulb three to four times as deep as the bulb is wide. Then, refill the hole with the soil you dug out.

4. Put the grass back in place, press it firmly into the soil, and then water it well. Don't worry about hurting your lawn! Grass roots reestablish quickly in in warm autumn soil.

5. In spring, the bulbs will push their way right through the grass and bloom! Do not mow the lawn until the bulbs finish flowering and their foliage yellows and dies back. Bulbs' leaves gather nutrients and return them to the bulb. If you cut the foliage off before it dies back, you rob the bulb of essential energy and it may not come up the following year.

Tips & Warnings

• Crocus naturalize especially well in lawns because their grassy foliage blends in and they bloom very early in spring. Plus, they come in a variety of colors.

• Naturalize daffodils at the edge of wooded areas or in ornamental beds.

• Daffodils do not naturalize well in lawns because the grass typically needs to be cut before the daffodil foliage dies back.

Resources

• DigginFood