The great tulip planting adventure began today. We managed to get 1600 out of 2000 bulbs into this raised bed.

The day began with wrestling "hardware cloth" (nothing like cloth, by the way) into a liner to keep voles out. Then came a thin layer of dirt, followed by placing tulips "egg crate style" in the bed. We covered them lightly to hold them in place; then our friend, Thad, from 2xt Services came to the rescue with his front end loader to top off the bed.

Tomorrow we will top the bed with more hardware cloth to keep critters out, and plant the other 400 in a trench that Thad dug in about 30 seconds.

The jury is still out on whether this method was a good idea or not. Time will tell. Cost of tulips, dirt, rebar, hardware cloth, dirt drop—$1,000+, not counting a full day of Dave’s and my labor. Anticipating the show come May? Priceless.

P.S.  I’m told that the Darwin hybrids will come back strong (400 in this bed) but the others will only produce foliage next year so I compost the bulbs once they are pulled (easier to do in a raised bed). So these are a “one and done” crop—unlike daffodils which come back year after year.