Plant a Double Decker Bulb Garden This Fall

For a spectacular display in your bulb garden next spring, begin in the fall with a double decker planting technique. Your bulb garden will be filled with gorgeous blooms that will return year after year. The double decker technique allows you to plant large bulbs and small bulbs in the same space. Use a variety of flower types mixed together, or use a single planting of one kind of flower. Extend the blooming season of your bulb garden by mingling early season, mid-season, and late season varieties in the same bed.

• Prepare the soil by tilling two inches deeper than the required planting depth of the largest bulbs. For example, tulips and daffodils are large bulbs, and they should be planted six to eight inches deep. So till the soil ten inches deep, and leave two inches of loose soil in the bottom of the bed.
• Plant all of the deepest bulbs first. Set them pointed end up on the two inches of loose soil. By mixing together similar bulbs with various blooming times, the display of flowers will cover a longer period.
• Cover the deep bulbs with about half of the soil and firm it in place. This leaves a depth of about four inches still open.
• Plant smaller bulbs like crocus or anemone. Smaller bulbs require a shallower planting depth, and you can plant them right over the larger bulbs.
• Cover the smaller bulbs, and level and firm the soil.
• Water the bulb garden, and cover it with a layer of mulch.

This method of double decker planting creates a lovely effect with tall and short varieties mixed. By planting early and late blooming varieties together, the later blooming plants hide the fading foliage of the earlier plants.

The spacing between the bulbs in this type of garden can be at your discretion. Within a few years, bulbs will multiply and fill in gaps naturally, creating beautiful en masse spring flower beds with little additional effort on your part.