newbie looking for a little bulb growing info/raised beds
Mary Sue Ittner (Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:40:35 PDT)

Hi Justin,

I grow bulbs in containers, in the ground, and in raised beds. And I've
grown them in raised beds with the plants added directly to the well
drained soil and raised beds with pots in pots where I could change or
repot individual areas of the bed. We actually had some discussion on
growing in raised beds on our list and Rachel Saunders who is the editor
for the excellent once a year bulletin for the Indigeneous Bulb Association
of South Africa summarized some of the experiences in an article. see page 44
http://safricanbulbs.org.za/articles/pdf/…

I later redid my beds and wrote about the change in this article on page 38:
http://safricanbulbs.org.za/articles/pdf/…

I have found some things to do really well grown this way. Smaller things
get lost and some things I grow really need more protection from the amount
of rain we can get in winter. For instance I tried Massonia one year and
that was not a success. Members of this list from Texas are in a better
position to say how easy it might be to grow winter rainfall South African
bulbs there and what tricks they used to be successful.

I took pictures of the raised beds in the Karoo Desert Botanic Garden in
Worcester Diane wrote about and added them to the wiki after our first
visit there in case you are interested.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

Growing everything in pots does get to be a challenge and I suspect that a
lot of us who start out enthusiastic get less so over the years. I hope
this helps.

Mary Sue