An English Bulb Meadow

Travis O enoster@hotmail.com
Fri, 07 Aug 2015 11:48:04 PDT
My country yard (5 acre lot, semi-rural) is a rodent habitat. Moles, gophers, rabbits, tree squirrels, ground squirrels, mice... Bulbs are lucky to survive. Then there are the deer.

Part of my yard has practically no topsoil, it is alluvial in nature (full of large rocks from an ancient river basin). Surrounding are douglas-fir and pine trees, adding a nice needle mulch every year. This is the area I've chosen to naturalize some Crocus and Scilla, small bulbs that I can plant easily in the difficult substrate. Moles and gophers stay away from these very rocky spots. Squirrels sometimes dig, but not too deep. To deal with deer, I've arranged some dead Arctostaphylos shrubs, the twisted wood is gorgeous, to obscure the view and restrict access by deer (inherently lazy browsers, I think). I have lost not a single Crocus so far in this spot, but I've lost many in areas with friable loam.

Hopefully the bulbs will increase well. Photos next year.

Travis Owen
Rogue River, OR

amateuranthecologist.blogspot.com
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/




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