How to Plant Tulips Under Mulch

Tulips, one of the most recognizable spring flowers, bring beauty to any yard in early spring. Tulips grow from bulbs, which must be planted about half a foot underground. If you have landscaping with mulch, you can still plant tulip beds, but it will require more effort as you must move mulch to gain access to the softer soil underneath.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Metal Rake Shovel Trowel Garden Hose Wheel Barrow Tulip Bulbs

1. Use a metal rake to clear away the mulch over the entire area where you want to plant the tulip bed. You can simply rake it all into a big pile and leave it there until you are done planting.

2. Use a shovel to dig down about six inches of dirt from the entire bed, placing the dirt into a wheelbarrow. Digging out the whole bed down to six inches takes a good deal of time and muscle, but it will can result in easier planting and better distribution of bulbs. If you plan on planting a very large area or want to plant bulbs sparsely, you can use a trowel to dig individual holes of 6 inch depth for each bulb.

3. Scatter your bulbs around the depression that you dug. Tulips look best when scattered randomly and not placed in obvious rows, so simply dumping them out of their bag and allowing them to scatter on their own can work well.

4. Rotate each bulb so that the tip is facing upward and push each one gently down to keep it in place. You can reposition bulbs that scattered too close together. Try to have at least 2.5 inches of space between each bulb.

5. Carefully shovel the dirt from the wheel barrow back into the hole, covering the bulbs and completely filling the hole. Try not to let the falling dirt cause any of the bulbs to rotate.

6. Water the bed with a garden hose.

7. Use the excess mulch to thicken coverage over a different part of your yard or to surround a tree or large plant to help it take in more water. You shouldn't cover tulip beds back up with thick mulch.

Tips & Warnings

• It is best to plant tulip bulbs in the fall when temperatures have fallen below 60 degrees and are not likely to rise above that level.
• If you plant bulbs at slightly different depths some will bloom sooner than others which can make the bed look nice longer in the spring.
• You can often plant tulips and other flowers closer together than instructions say in order to get a more full looking bed.

Resources

• http://tipnut.com/plant-tulips/
• http://www.gardeningwithkids.org/plantingtulips.html