Kids - Plant your own bulbs!

This weekend we spent an awful lot of it surrounded by flowers. We visited the Hampton Court Flower show which the boys adored and they couldn’t wait to get started in the garden. We were recently sent some gorgeous bulbs from Spalding Bulb so we decided today to get in and plant the bulbs that will give us some later flowers blooms.

One of my youngest favourite flowers were the Gladioli’s he saw on display and he’s desperate from us to have some. Thankfully we have a packet of mixed gladioli bulbs. Normally to be planted in spring after the last of the frost we were assured by a specialist that it was worth giving it a go for some late summer beauties.  He managed to read us out the instructions from the front and informed us they needed to be 8cm apart and 8 cm deep in the soil. To protect them later on in the year we decided to play them in pots.

We dug up some well composted soil from the veg patch and he helped us break down all the lumps in the soil till it was fine. We measured with our eyes and he very carefully placed the bulbs 8cm apart.

He had a fabulous time figuring it all out and counting the centimetres up to 8 each times. Once we had carefully figured this out we chucked some more soil on top. Another 8cms you’ll be glad to know and firmly pushed down the soil and gave it a good watering.

Bulbs are a great way to get your kids involved in gardening out in the garden. There are bulbs that you can plant throughout the year so no having to wait a couple of months and your child loosing enthusiasm. Why not get even plant a bulb in a clear jar so you can watch it every step of the way? A great way to do this is with hycathinths.

Fill up a jar with stones or glass (this is optional and purely just for style)

Set the bulb inside the forcing jar until it gets stuck in the narrow part (roots facing down)

Fill the jar with water till it just reaches the roots.

And store in a cool dark place for about a month or two. When the sprout shoots and the roots start to grow, bring it into the sunlight and change the water once a fortnight and watch your plant and flower emerge!