Gardening: Bring open grassland alive with spring bulbs

If you've ever walked through a sea of bluebells in the woods in spring or wondered at the beauty of an endless carpet of snowdrops under trees or drifts of purple crocuses peeping through the grass, you'll realise the value of naturalising bulbs.

In meadows, camassias and fritillaries poke their heads out beyond longer grass, while later in the year autumn crocus bloom under trees when everything else has faded.

Some gardeners choose to plant narcissi in their lawns to add a splash of colourful contrast in the spring sunshine and there are many varieties which are ideal for this job, including the dwarf types N. 'Hawera' and 'Tete a Tete'.

You can naturalise bulbs even if you don't have a big garden. Some bulbs will do well under the canopy of a mature shrub or even at the foot of a hedge or wall, but if you want a wildflower look choose bulbs with small, delicate-looking flowers, avoiding big, bold, brash double-flowered daffodils or anything that would look better in a more manicured, orderly garden.

For a natural look, plant bulbs in random clumps and space them irregularly over the planting area, sticking to one type if you want drifts to maximise the effect.

Avoid a geometric pattern at all costs. The traditional way is to drop a handful of bulbs on the ground and plant them where they fall.

To naturalise bulbs in grass, remember that you will need to wait at least six weeks after the last flowers have faded before cutting the grass, to allow the leaves to produce the food for the developing bulbs below ground, which will provide next year's display.

Plant the bulbs in an area where you'll be happy to leave the grass long for a few weeks while the leaves die down naturally.

When planting in grass, lift squares of turf with a spade, cutting around the turves to the required depth and then folding them back after planting and firming them down.

As a rule, bulbs need to be planted at least three times the depth of the bulb and spaced at least twice its diameter, as they need space to multiply without becoming overcrowded.

Planting a few clumps close to each other and scattering others a short way from the main colony will create a natural effect.

If the grass is thin and the ground soft, you can use a bulb planter although I find these quite hard work if you are planting a lot of bulbs.

Good specimens for naturalising in grass include crocus, narcissi, muscari, camassia, erythronium, snowdrops, scilla and ornithogalum.

Those which can do well under trees include Anemone blanda, winter aconite (eranthis), Chionodoxa luciliae and trillium.

Most tulips don't look their best naturalised in grass. Taller single varieties may look stunning for just one season but may need to be lifted and many will need replacing every year.

More...Best of the bunch

Pyracantha (Firethorn)

These prickly evergreen shrubs are not only excellent specimens for keeping burglars at bay if planted on garden boundaries, but also provide fantastic colour in the form of their brilliant berries, in shades of red, orange and yellow, which last well into winter. They can be singly grown as free-standing shrubs but I think they look best trained out flat against a wall, where their berries make more visual impact and they can be trained on cold, north-facing walls where little else will grow. Pyracantha can also be planted as a hedge, while the low-growing ones provide useful ground cover. Recommended red and orange-red berry types include P. rogersiana, P. 'Orange Glow', P. 'Soleil d'Or', which has yellow berries, and P. coccinea 'Red Column'. They will thrive in any reasonable soil in sun or partial shade and need little maintenance, except for trimming in late winter.

What to do this week

• Plant winter and spring bedding displays, including wallflowers, pansies and forget-me-nots.

• Harvest early varieties of leeks and sprouts and pick autumn cauliflowers.

• Divide and move lily bulbs, replanting them immediately.

• Keep harvested onions and garlic in a cool, bright, dry place.

• Dig up maincrop potatoes now before they are spoiled by damp, cold weather.

• Cut back lavender if you missed giving your plants their late summer trim.

• Prune blackberry canes when they've fruited.

• Plant container-grown woody plants and roses.

• Lay turf while the soil is workable, warm and damp.

• Make sure your tender plants are taken under cover before the first frost.

• Start a compost heap when there is plenty of garden debris and you have fallen leaves to add to it.

•Lift tender summer-flowering bulbs such as cannas and gladioli for storage.

•Fill vacant spots in the veg patch with over- wintering onions.