I suppose i should search the forum, but now i'm writing so i'll ask anyway.

I was thinking about planting a large contatiner of spring bulbs to place on my drive way. How big should it be to

make it thru our zone 5 winter with little insullation?

i was hoping that a whiskey barrel would do the trick. I wanted to plant crocus, daffs, tulips and lilies. I like the idea of using small pots and moving them in and out of window boxes-- i will do this for my 4 boxes this year--

i'll just put those pots in with the bulbs i force for inside. I was thnking about using the whiskey barrel as a permament display with a dwarf flowering quince in the center.-- do i need to consider a larger pot? or more winter protection? (the barrels could be mounted on casters and placed right next to the house and then moved as spring approaches.

we use about 1/2 our drive as a sitting area/patio. currewntly i use the barrels in the summer for annuals to

mnark the edges of the 'patio' and thought to make them more interesting the other 7 months of the year as well as to provide a little more screening when we sit outside.

hopefully i will eventually have a happy flowering bush

artistically shaped surrounded by a diplay of spring bulbs,

summer annuals, and a low ground cover. then i could but little italian white lights on the bush and have the 'twinkle' at night all year long.

sounds nice, but can it be done in zone 5 and be self sustaining other than h2o and fertilizer as needed?

oh, and i'm that part of NE Ohio that doesn't get lots of snow cover all winter long.

diggerb