About Protecting Garden Beds and Moving Bulbs

Written by Sylvia Briggs-Bauer

When in doubt, just cover your garden with dry leaves or mulch! Bulbs (for example tulips) can be dug up from pots and moved to garden soil, or stored inside to dry and be planted in the spring. You will discover that in some years you will dig up many more bulbs than you planted!  Other perennials with underground storage structures such as irises are usually hearty enough to survive a freeze if they are planted in the ground. Chicken wire over flower bulbs, and then dry leaves on top is a very smart way to protect them from nibbling squirrels and the cold – the former more likely in our climate than the latter.