Bulb planting time.

[Snadger]

I didn't realise this bulb planting lark was such an expensive game!

Went to B&Q and bought a bag of potting compost and two bags of grit to plant up some bulbs. Didn't realise the horticultural grit was £6.00 a bag, so spent over £17 without buying any bulbs.
Poundland had ditched all there gardening stuff and replaced it with Halloween costumes. Finished up paying another £8.00 at Morrisons and back to B&Q for another £6.00 expenditure on bulbs.

So that's £31 squid its cost me to plant up four medium sized pots. There had better be a good show come spring time.

[bario1]

I wait till they reduce the daffs in Tesc@ to 15p a bag....

[cheops]

If you don’t mind me saying so Snadger you have made it expensive for yourself. A large bag of run of the mill compost in Lidl’s for example would be currently around a couple of quid and would be fine for potted bulbs. Horticultural grit in my opinion is not necessary. I will be planting around 400 tulips soon [too early yet] and some other spring bulbs and any destined for planters or pots will not be getting any grit or expensive compost.
Having said all that, next spring your displays will gladden your heart and your money spent will be forgotten.

[Snadger]

If you don’t mind me saying so Snadger you have made it expensive for yourself. A large bag of run of the mill compost in Lidl’s for example would be currently around a couple of quid and would be fine for potted bulbs. Horticultural grit in my opinion is not necessary. I will be planting around 400 tulips soon [too early yet] and some other spring bulbs and any destined for planters or pots will not be getting any grit or expensive compost.
Having said all that, next spring your displays will gladden your heart and your money spent will be forgotten.

I blame Monty Don for putting the grit idea into my head. It wasn't until I bought a £4.00 large bag of compost and looked at the size of the grit bags, I decided I would need two. I didn't realise they were six squid a bag though!

I usually buy some bulbs cheaply at the end of the season, but decided this year to push the boat out and bite the bullet for full price bulbs. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

[Snadger]

My job for today...….plant this lot!

[cheops]

You have a nice variety there Snadger. Grit will improve the drainage but so will ‘drainage stones’ in the bottom of pots. Horticultural grit is really gravel of a certain size washed and then sold for big profit. If you are near a small river at bends in the river there will be lots of very small stones [the size of grit] you could shovel up. Near the sea - high up on the shoreline there is often ‘grit’ but which needs washed first. Are any of your bulbs going into the ground? Not your rockery tulips but your ordinary tulips and your hyacinths if planting in the ground I would suggest you plant deeper than recommended. Tulips and hyacinths flowers detoriate after the first year because they are not planted deep so they spend a lot of energy forming bulblets and less energy into flowering. Planted deeper than usual they are less likely to form bulblets.

[DannyK]

If you're just after drainage try perlite. 100lt can be got for c£20 including delivery and is probably equal to at least 4 20kg bags of grit in volume.

It's very light and should be damped down when using, stops dust and mixes better.

It's useless for dressing pots otherwise does all that grit does.

[mothhawk]

I get most of my grit from keeping an eye out in the summer on where the country roads are being re-gritted. After cars have travelled across it for a week there are usually little heaps of grit in the gutters or down the centre which can be scooped up into a bucket. (Watch out for traffic!) It's good granite grit and with a wash in cold water is excellent on top of planters.

You may even be lucky enough to find a spot where the gritter has been refilled and left a big overspill heap on the verge that will fill 3 or 4 buckets easily.

I've just put some grit on the surface of the pots with my ginger in, as they had got sciarid fly/fungus gnats, which were driving me nuts flying around the kitchen. The grit both stops the flies getting at the compost to lay eggs, and seems to damage the wings of emerging gnats so they can't fly.
Win, win!

[Snadger]

All done!

[mothhawk]

After spending two hours removing 2 buckets full of grape hyacinths from a bed only 2' x 4' - they are truly worse than celandines, ranging in size from 2cm down to pinhead - I've replanted with a bulb selection pack from Wilk0's consisting of 8 each pale pink and deep purple tulips, 24 giant purple crocus, and 30 each of pale pink and deep pink alliums, the little ones that grow 8" high - 100 bulbs for a fiver - bargain!