Bulbs: Has anyone found a bulb-planting tool that really works?, 1 by LeawoodGardener

LeawoodGardener wrote:
The columns were part of a major construction project in my garden in 2006. There is a creek that runs the length of my property that had been a flood threat. In the late 1990's the City decided to widen the creek as part of a city-wide flood control problem (Leawood is hilly, thus those of us in the low-lying areas have been in danger of flooding). The construction project took a major chunk of land from my yard, but also left me with a wide swath of barren ground when they finished, so I decided to turn it into a wide border garden. I added the columns to give me a 'focal area'. The are antique cast iron columns I bought in 2003 from a dealer in upstate New York. I had a bricklayer build the curved walls to hold the columns. and added the Canada Red Cherry trees as a screen at the back.

Bulbs have no problem dealing with winter - it's the hot summer when the bed of annuals get watered regularly that seems to cause problems (read the comments here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/968351/).

My comments about planting bulbs by hand (and yes, the bed of 750 was also planted by hand, with a trowel, one bulb at a time) is just based upon trying everything I can to make the job easy, but discarding the 'tools' that don't work.

BTW, the construction crew that widened the creek left me with beds of fill dirt that consisted of clay and rock. I've broken 3 shovels in the last 3 years, digging in the clay and prying out large rocks to throw out. I'm amending the soil in my border one shovel full at a time - LOL. Here's the latest - Ames Tool Co's 'best' shovel, broken by digging out a rock.