Planting Bulbs Beyond the Flowerbeds
Orchard Companions
We’ve observed year after year that the most disease-free and thriving gardens and orchards are ones planted diversely. Bring in the good bugs, the birds and the moths with an assortment of blossoms from perennials, annuals and bulbs across the growing seasons.
Garlic Galore We’ve been underplanting and interplanting garlic with our fruit trees and ornamentals for years. It repels unwanted molds and fungi, as well as aphids, mites and borers. You can leave this garlic in the ground and let it scatter its bulbils to make a dense stand that can cozy up among other orchard companions.
We don’t consider this garlic our prize stash for the larder—we still grow some in a regular garden bed. Alternately you could plant the garlic in a looser ring around a fruit tree and heavily mulch with rich compost so the heads size up for a decent harvest.
Daffodils are a favorite in the orchard. Not only do they blooms around the same time as many fruit trees, attracting pollinators from far and wide, they also deter mice and voles from girdling fruit tree trunks. Deer avoid them, too. Plant Narcissus bulbs tightly—bulb to bulb—in a ring about 12" from tree trunks, like little flower fortresses around your precious fruit trees.
Other orchard companions we love are perennials like comfrey, yarrow, mint, columbine, hyssop, Baptisia, cranesbill and daisies.
Sowing a mixture of grasses, legumes and flowering cover crops in the orchard fills in the gaps between trees and perennials. We recommend our CR Lawn Mix, Flowering Lawn Mix, or Dutch White Clover (found in our Seeds and Supplies catalog and on the web). These further diversify the orchard, feed the soil and draw in pollinators.
Planting Bulbs for the Pollinators
Spring-blooming bulbs offer early forage for many kinds of pollinators and beneficial insects. Consider these creatures when you plan your garden or orchard.
When planting for pollinators, keep in mind that they mostly go for the single-petaled flowers. Pollinators struggle to access the cultivars with complicated structures and double blooms.
Crocus - Very early delightful whites, purples, creams and yellows emerging while the last snow falls on the robin’s back. The bees will go nuts for these! Plant en masse and then plant more every year. They bloom when there is little else for pollinator forage.
Grape Hyacinth (Muscari) - Early to midspring blooms just on the heels of the crocus. Muscari last for the better part of a month, and the bees seem to have no trouble climbing into the elongated bells of this adorable flower.
Daffodils - Apples, pears, plums and peaches are all blooming while the Narcissus peak. Planting rings of Narcissus around your fruit trees will beckon the bees to your orchard.
Species Tulips - These single starry blossoms are easier for pollinators to climb into than the big flouncy garden tulips.
Alliums - Large umbels are loaded with individual florets, each one beckoning to bees and butterflies in early summer.
Take your pollinator stewardship further by installing a Bee House, which provides nesting sites for native leafcutter and mason bees.