Why I’m Choosing Organic Spring Bulbs

Why I’m Choosing Organic Spring Bulbs 

Why Choose Organic Spring Bulbs?

 A Beginner’s Guide to More Wildlife-Friendly Spring Planting

Spring colour starts underground — but does it matter how our bulbs are grown?

There are always things in the garden that make me stop and think. Sometimes it's a new plant I've discovered. Sometimes it's a gardening mistake that teaches me something. And sometimes it's something I've been doing for years without ever really questioning it.

This time, it was spring bulbs.

I have grown bulbs before, of course. Who doesn't love seeing those first little Crocuses or Daffodils pushing their way through the soil after a long winter?

 But I hadn't really stopped to think about how the bulbs themselves had been grown.

 That changed after listening to Martha and Jaime from The Homegrown Podcast, who highlighted the importance of choosing organic spring bulbs. By the way, if you have never watched or listened, you should they are really great. 

And it made me think:

If I'm trying to garden organically, shouldn't I think about the plants and bulbs I'm bringing into my garden too?

So this autumn, I'm doing things a little differently in The Organic Yarden.

Why I'm choosing organic spring bulbs

When we talk about organic gardening, we tend to think about what happens once a plant is growing in our garden.

We think about:

• organic compost

• feeding our plants naturally

• avoiding synthetic pesticides

• looking after the soil

• encouraging pollinators

• growing food without unnecessary chemicals

• creating a garden where wildlife has a place

But the choices we make before a plant even reaches our garden can be part of that picture too.

That's why I've started paying more attention to where my bulbs come from and how they have been grown.

I'm not trying to create a perfectly controlled garden — because, let's be honest, that would be completely unrealistic!

The Organic Yarden is full of experiments, slightly wonky plants, enthusiastic weeds and the occasional gardening disaster.

I'm simply trying to make choices that fit with the way I want to garden.

Organic where I can. Wildlife-friendly where I can. And always learning.

It's not just about the flowers.

It's about thinking about:

• the soil

• pollinators

• other garden wildlife

• what goes into growing the plants we buy

• reducing unnecessary chemical inputs where possible

• making choices that fit with the way we want to garden

I'd keep this section carefully worded so we're talking about the principles of organic growing rather than making claims that every conventional bulb is harmful.

Spring bulbs and early pollinators

One of the things I love about spring bulbs is that they can bring colour into the garden at a time when everything else can still look rather sleepy.

Winter can feel like a very long season in the garden.

Then suddenly... POP! A Crocus appears. A few weeks later there are Muscari. Then Daffodils.

And before you know it, the garden is waking up again.

Early spring flowers can also provide valuable food for pollinators when there are fewer other flowers available.

That makes bulbs useful for more than simply making our gardens look pretty. They're part of the wider garden ecosystem.

And that's something I want to encourage here at The Organic Yarden.

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