Rebuilding My Daffodil Beds
to a landscaper that I know about the "mushroom" soil and his face lit up and he beamed that he could get the soil cheaper than anyone else in the area, and quoted me a price that was $50 a truck load more than it cost me. Buying directed paid, in this case.
Fill/Dirt/Soil
After the "mushroom" soil was delivered, we used the "bobcat" with the scoope to move the soil into the raised bed - through a 10 feet section in the side that we didn't construct until the bed was full of soil. I usually like my amended soil to be 20 to 24 inches deep with lots of organic matter, as daffodils like that best. I'm settling on 18-20 inches of "mushroom" soil that has a very organic base, and one that holds a lot of water. I've already found that this soil is very thirsty, and once wet, it hold the moisture for a long time. Now I'm worried about drainage.
Rows
My next step is to allow the bed to settle for a couple of months. After that I will form the bed into three 4 feet wide rows for planting. Since the bed is 16 feet wide by 50 feet long, I can made the three rows easily and have 18 inches or so room to walk between them. In two years when I dig the bulbs, this bed will have to be refreshed, but I do that anyway.
Don't Do This At Home To create this same effect at home is easy - let me show you how. I'll admit that I raise massive amounts of daffodils and therefore need a large bulb bed to plant them. You don't need this effect at home. If you are only raising daffodils for the garden, read the article in this column from a couple weeks ago called, Basics of Daffodil Gardening.
If your desire is to create a home garden size bed for show daffodils, follow the role set in this article, but use a smaller frame, in the area of 10 feet by 4 feet wide. The daffodil beds need to be dug deep, so a raised bed to get the same effect as digging deep, and add a large percentage of organic matter to top soil. The effect will be about the same, a good garden beds for growing daffodil bulbs.
Good luck. And good gardening.
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