Hi everybody
I have been asked by Ben Blake and Niels Benatar how did we plant 27,000 daffodils in two and a half hours.
Ben you are right Les has a number of long steel poles about an inch in diameter which us kiwis call crowbars which are used to break up rocks or heavy clay when digging holes say for foundations. The crowbars are pushed into the ground with some force and then moved around in the hole to widen it enough so a bulb will fit into it. The bulb is pushed in so that it is quite firm. Nature does the rest with the bulb in contact with moisture roots grow which pulls the bulb further down into the ground. The second photo with Rosemary also shows some of the guys with the crowbars. Now have a close look at the photo with Les in it you can see what looks white leaves or sticks on the grass by the buckets and the traffic cone it is actually the tops of the bulbs sticking out of the ground. Now the ground was quite moist and soft and it was very late to plant daffodil bulbs here but to plant this way the ground needs to be soft so you can get the crowbar into the ground. The reason why we didn’t get 30,000 planted is some parts of the ground had a stony layer about 3 to 4 inches down which slowed up the hole makers. I have attached the photos again so you can see.
Cheers
Trevor