Denise Hodgins

Now that it is September I don't spend as much time in the garden as I do in the summer. Now that it is September I don't spend as much time in the garden as I do in the summer.

You are going to see fall bulbs at stores everywhere.

Advertisement 1 Share this Story : Growing Concerns: Hen manure protects and nourishes fall bulbs Growing Concerns: Hen manure protects and nourishes fall bulbs You are going to see fall bulbs at stores everywhere. Author of the article: • Special to The London Free Press Article content You are going to see fall bulbs at stores everywhere. Advertisement 2 Article content Growing Concerns: Hen manure protects and nourishes fall bulbs Back to video In countries like the Netherlands, bulbs are grown every year. Once the bulb flowers, folks remove the off-colour bulbs and then the rest are dug up, dried and packaged for shipping. Bulbs are packed and ready to be shipped the first week of August and we can start planting them any time once they arrive. When picking bulbs try to purchase ones with different bloom times so the show in your garden can last for a long time. Bulbs should be firm like an onion with their skin attached. If a bulb is soft or mushy, it will rot in the ground. Squirrels love to eat crocus and tulip bulbs. One year I planted about 200 crocus and four bloomed the following spring. Because of that, I plant mostly daffodils and snowdrops. You can use bulb bins which are wire cages you put your bulbs in and then plant them in the ground. The bulb grows up through it and squirrels and other rodents cannot get into the bulbs. You can also use hen manure. Rodents are offended by the smell and will leave things alone most of the time. The great thing with the hen manure is that in the spring when the bulbs begin to grow they get a boost of fertilizer from the manure. Denise Hodgins is a professional gardening coach in London. Send your questions to [email protected] Article content Share this article in your social network Share this Story : Growing Concerns: Hen manure protects and nourishes fall bulbs Comments Join the Conversation Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information. Latest National Stories News Near Elliot Lake Featured Local Savings

This past week, I took advantage of the nice weather to gather a few seeds from some of my favourite plants.

There's mixed views about whether or not you should clean up your flower beds in the fall and if you should dispose of all your leaves.

Fall is here and I am well underway planning for next year.

When you take a workshop, you don't have the same amount of waste.

This time of year, we ride a weather roller-coaster and our gardens are starting to suffer.

I love to share so I have given IOU's for plants from my garden to someone else in the spring.

I was in a big box store and all the bulbs were marked down, so I picked up a few of the more expensive bulbs