After over 40 years in construction and drilling holes in many different materials I have just discovered I can drill holes in hard dirt. Along my driveway here in central California I am slowly making mass plantings of Calochortus and Brodiaea, most of which are started from seed. During our dry summer they get NO WATER, which makes the soil almost shovel proof. For years I would use a 5 pound clay pick to loosen the soil to in order to plant these bulbs, that pick gets harder to swing each year. This weekend I tried drilling proper sized holes with a hammer drill, large enough for the bulb to easily slip into the hole. This is quick and allows for precise and easy planting. For those without hammer dill I experimented with a cordless drill and a masonry bit. This will work if you can get the proper sized bits and the drill has the power to do the job. I don't why it took so long to figure this out. Jim Barton <html xmlns:///v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml/" o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office/" xmlns:///w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word/" m="http://…" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 14 (filtered medium)"> <style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:///Calibri/; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:///0in/; margin-bottom:.0001pt; font-size:///11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:///blue/; text-decoration:///underline/;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-priority:99; color:///purple/; text-decoration:///underline/;} span.EmailStyle17 {mso-style-type:///personal-compose/; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:///windowtext/;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:///export-only/; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";} @page WordSection1 {size:///8.5in 11.0in; margin:///1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;} div.WordSection1 {page:///WordSection1/;} --></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" /> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:shapelayout v:ext="edit"> <o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" /> </o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--> </head> <body lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"> <div class="WordSection1"> <p class="MsoNormal">After over 40 years in construction and drilling holes in many different materials I have just discovered I can drill holes in hard dirt. Along my driveway here in central California I am slowly making mass plantings of Calochortus and Brodiaea, most of which are started from seed. During our dry summer they get NO WATER, which makes the soil almost shovel proof. For years I would use a 5 pound clay pick to loosen the soil to in order to plant these bulbs, that pick gets harder to swing each year. This weekend I tried drilling proper sized holes with a hammer drill, large enough for the bulb to easily slip into the hole. This is quick and allows for precise and easy planting. For those without hammer dill I experimented with a cordless drill and a masonry bit. This will work if you can get the proper sized bits and the drill has the power to do the job. I don’t why it took so long to figure this out.<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Jim Barton<o:p></o:p></p> </div> </body> </html> _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…