Naturalizing Bulbs in the Lawn

6 years ago

I was doing some final fall lawn patching and well, even with a hand shovel, it takes a bit of work to score out a line in the turf to lift a piece of sod up.

Riddle me this - for those that do have bulbs in the turf. Does the bulbs manage a way to ~poke through~ every year, without any diminishing returns as the year progresses. I've been considering a spot where I might want to naturalize bulbs on the border, but I can't picture a ~soft pliable stem~ poking it's way through sod yearly ;-)

Featured Answer

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

6 years ago

"Why are lawns over watered?"

Because too many here are obsessed with having pristine, lush, weed-free green lawns all year long despite their being an environmental black hole! In addition to supplying with copious amounts of often daily irrigation, lawns are the by far the biggest consumers of both fertilizers and pesticides of any "crop" grown in the US. The more of these products that are applied, the greater the need for frequent - usually too frequent - watering.

It also doesn't help that most inground automatic lawn irrigation systems are programmed incorrectly, coming on too frequently and for too short a duration.

FWIW, in all my years of gardening, I have never intentionally watered my lawn (I also never fertilize - I mulch mow - and only hand pull weeds). And I live in an area that is typically bone dry in summer, usually getting less than an inch of rainfall from the end of June to the end of September. It doesn't die......it just goes dormant and will come back to life as soon as fall rains arrive. But many are unwilling to settle for anything other than that vast expanse of pure green and pour on both the chemicals and the water.

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Comments (10)

dbarron
6 years ago
I haven't seen anything (here) but star of Bethlehem and muscari successfully thrive in a lawn. Your mileage may vary, and the care of the lawn (watering and weed killer) will certainly affect that.
a1an
Original Author
6 years ago
I do more pulling that spot spraying. Lawn's irrigated which was on my radar. It does get 2 half apps of Pre-Emergent, but I don't think this would effect the bulbs at all.

It's been on my radar re: bulbs/lawn, and while this time of the year, bulbs are on my mind, as I was cutting up a piece of sod out, I was surely saying there was no way bulbs will be able punch through this knitted turf. I see many pics of bulbs in lawns....I just can't picture them punching through
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dbarron
6 years ago
I don't see that being much of a problem, but the water in summer would surely rot most.
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
The tips of bulb foliage are not soft and pliable. They're tough and quite hard, being designed by nature to penetrate semifrozen ground. Sod is a cinch to a bulb. Crocus, snowdrops, Camassias, fritillaries, species tulips, chionodixa, scillas, winter aconites and Narcissi are all commonly grown in lawns and meadows here. Lawn irrigation is rare here but Summer rain is not a problem and doesn't rot the bulbs.
dbarron
6 years ago
Floral, over 'here' (being that I've only lived in mid to south central US (a geo strip of oh 1000 miles or so), lawn irrigation is excessive and only semi-aquatic plants could thrive ;) I do not water my lawn (it floods by itself), but believe me, no bulb could survive in typical use here. I can't even get most bulbs to persist in beds that should be more to their liking than lawns. The problems are moisture and summer heat (in combo).
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
6 years ago
So... got to ask. Why are lawns over watered?
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beesneeds
6 years ago
Crocus, snow drops, muscari, hyacinth, all pop up in spring lawns around here. But Daffodils seem to be the ones that want to just show up everywhere. Wild chives pop up in lush green swaths before the grass is tall enough to mow.

Not bulbs, but I have a few spots in the lawn where wild strawberries grow, and dot the areas with low white blooms between mowings.

I'm assuming since you are wanting bulbs in the lawn, you mean stuff that blooms and dies back early enough in the season that mowing them down once the grass gets taller isn't a problem.
dbarron
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Well, the same question would be why to we fertilizer lawns enough to grow 3 fields of produce of equivalent size, simply so we can mow it more? I really don't know..never have been in that demographic. I assume it's because hey lawn needs water, and if a little bit is good, a lot is better, right? The wasteful west, where you see water running from sprinklers down the street into the storm drains fairly frequently. Chalk it up to american insanity ?
dbarron
6 years ago
Excellent explanation..and quite true I think, GG.