Split Your Bulbs

The weather is starting finally starting to cool off here in Wisco. We had another warm fall with an extended growing season, hmmm climate change?... We won't go there, but my garden definitely wasn't complaining! This weekend we decided it was time to split our lily bed (approximately 4x40 foot bed) that we had been cultivating for the last 4 years and WOW were we surprised to see how our bulbs had grown! It was definitely time to split and re-organize our lily bulbs.

Cue our favorite garden tool.... the Treadlite Broadfork! Our broadfork tilled up our hard clay soil with ease and we were able to quickly remove the lily bulbs for splitting and storing inside over winter. We did have to do a little research as we know lily bulbs do best with cold winters and we have never brought them inside before. Everyone has a slightly different preference for how they like to "over-winter" their bulbs indoors but here is what we decided to do:

1. Split the bulbs so we have even more lily plants next season :)

2. Sort the bulbs in boxes by color / variety to keep the plants organized for re-planting in the spring

3. We used cardboard boxes lined with plastic and filled with fresh pine wood chips (the goal here is to keep the bulbs moist but not too moist, a very careful dance that will require us to monitor them periodically throughout the winter)

4. After prepping the boxes we stored them down in the basement where it will stay cool and dark over the winter months​

All in all it was an afternoon well spent, we got to do some digging in the garden, we learned some new things about bulbs, and the best part is we got to share in the whole process with our little ones!

My favorite part was when Brooke definitely was feeling a little left out that they were all "Lily's" bulbs and she re-named one of the boxes "Brooke's" bulbs :)

Happy Digging!