Sarah Raven’s Bulb Lasagna

This November, we welcome gardener and acclaimed author Sarah Raven to Thyme for three inspirational workshops, in which she will share the lessons learned from years of plant trials and tips on how to achieve an outdoor space that’s full of life and colour. Through detailed live demonstrations and intimate discussions, each guest will leave with a trug of new found knowledge and tricks of the gardening trade.

In anticipation of November’s upcoming happenings, we caught up with Sarah to discuss her famous bulb lasagna and the methods she uses to create this marvellous springtime display.

The BULB LASAGNA METHOD

To achieve a dense and colourful springtime display, the layering of bulbs in terracotta pots is the perfect solution. The Dutch call this method a bulb lasagna, due to the alternating layers of varied bulbs and nutrient rich compost. Sarah advises that all budding gardeners plant the largest and latest flowering bulbs at the base of the pot, with the smallest and earliest layered on top. The emergent shoots of the lower bulbs bend and grow around anything above them as they make their way towards the surface.

Photography by Jonathan Buckley

This method requires each bulb to be planted slightly further apart compared to a pot with a single layer. Sarah assures that a space of 1 to 1.5 inches apart is the right sort of spacing. The first layer of latest flowering bulbs can be planted as deep as 11 to 12 inches into the soil. Once the first layer has been planted, cover them over with a couple inches of potting compost, before the next layer of bulbs is added to the lasagna.

In tall terracotta pots (16 inches wide and 25 inches deep), Sarah plants up to 15 bulbs in each layer, meaning 45 bulbs if you were to create a lasagna with three tiers. The bottom layer planted at nearly a food, the middle at 8 inches deep, and the top bulbs 4 to 5 inches below the compost’s surface. 

Large pots or smaller containers, in a group, or just one on its own, autumn is the time to plot, plan, and plant your spring-flowering bulb fiesta.

“Last spring, I tried another trio of current favourites ‘Bruine Wimpel’, with ‘Jan Reus’ and ‘Helmar’. Tulip ‘Bruine Wimpel’ is incredible, the inside of its petals the colour of a brandy snap, the outside a mix of copper, chalk and pink, which looked magnificent planted with the deep wine-red ‘Jan Reus’ and a zing of boldness from the deep-red, flashed yellow ‘Helmar’.”

Photography by Jonathan Buckley

Photography by Jonathan Buckley