If you use a pail or container that takes about 2 gallons (10L) of potting mix with NO water crystals AND some added grit - and has useful drain holes in the bottom (at least as round as your thumb and 4-5 of them) - then you plant your bulbs about four inches deep and cover them as usual. As far as I can tell, the bulbs don't mind the ground/mix freezing overnight and into the next morning. They will still rise and shine. I've done this with species tulips, early doubles, darwins, and parrots over two or more years. If you have a site that is mostly unfrozen but still chilly - between -5C and about 10C they'll probably prosper. Just, not prolonged freezing over several days or weeks (eek!). (They might. Wouldn't say they couldn't. But I don't actually know that. :-)) )

I spoke too soon perhaps. It has just rained but probably doesn't amount to all that much. It all helps though. The one good thing about dryness is you don't have to mow the grass so often :-). Other than that, it is not good for farmers and gardeners. I think you hit the nail on the head. My potting soil holds moisture for several days until plants get large. My soil needs amendments which would solve half the problem. I do think planting formerly barren areas and maybe covering with leaves in the fall will gradually improve the soil, even if I don't compost yet. I will be mulching a lot wherever it is practical. I couldn't mulch over the wildflower seeds I scattered, but many other areas where I spread out the plants, I can, do and will.

Kswl, I'm so sorry, but amazed you've come through this with your sense of humor intact. You have a great GC! Buy his wife flowers. Here in SC we've got a bit of a situation here at the marina. It's gotten down into the teens for a couple of nights running, and while the marina staff turned off the water to the docks Sunday and opened all the valves at each and every spigot on our power stands,the pipes didn't drain sufficiently and there are shattered water pipes on every dock and the main dock. I think they're going to have to replace all the water lines. Meanwhile we have no water to the boats. On our own boat we're having problems with our water pump, and we've got to keep our hot water heater running, because we're afraid our own water lines will freeze. We can't run water continously because our water tank is finite, only half full, and who knows when we'll have a water source again from the dock. I'm ready for this weather pattern to abate.

I probably could dig down 4" in the garden, at least in the raised beds. I'd expect to find moisture since I've been watering deeply about once every 4 or 5 days. No matter how deeply I water, it isn't enough and dries out really quickly, but I'm just trying to keep things alive until rainfall returns. Outside the garden? Everything, clay and sand alike, has deep cracks and is rock hard. I'd have to use a jackhammer to dig down 4". I suppose I could stick my finger, hand and arm down into one of the cracks in the ground to see if I could find any moisture, but I wouldn't dare....I've seen snakes glide down into those cracks and disappear. July and August have been really disappointing, moisture-wise. No rain here in 5 weeks and, while I am sure we have good soil moisture a foot or more down, we don't seem to have much in the upper portion of the soil. Even the Johnson grass and crab grass are withering and turning brown....which isn't a problem, of course, and the lambs quarter leaves are all rolled up, drying out and falling off. The pigweed (sadly) still looks fine thought the foliage all wilts at mid-day and then perks up again over night. Normally we have better rainfall in August than we have had so far---we average about 2.6 or 2.7" of rain in a typical August. At our house so far this year, we've had 0.02". Of course, August isn't even halfway over yet. Since the butterflies love the heat, we have butterflies everywhere, so at least there's that. Chris and I mowed the front pasture 2 or 3 weeks ago and it showed no new growth at all for well over a week. Now, a few grasses finally are putting up new green growth but it is pitifully thin and sparse. There's nothing wrong here that a good 2 or 3" of rain wouldn't fix, at least for a while, but there's no meaningful rain in sight, and our KBDI goes up daily. Robert, the KBDIs near you are scary-high. My garden is looking pretty pitiful and I have been watering. It's just been hard to water enough to fight the sort of heat we've been having in combination with no rainfall. I am hoping this week's little cool spell helps. It is drier across the river in Texas than it is here, and there are some disgruntled fire chiefs in the county across from ours because their county commissioners declined to enact a burn ban at last week's meeting. Oddly (don't tell my fire chief husband), I don't think we need a burn ban (and doubt they really need one yet either) because I don't think the fires here are bad enough to merit that. I think we're months away from possibly needing a burn ban and I expect El Nino' autumn rains will ensure we don't reach that point. We are, though, quite a bit drier than we normally are in August and that could mean problems down the road until rainfall materializes in a decent amount. Had I not been watering quite heavily the last 4 or 5 weeks, I expect my garden would be largely brown and dead. I base that on all the gardens around us that are exactly that....brown and dead. A lot of people have mowed their brown gardens down to the ground, or plowed them under. I can't do either because I have perennial herbs, veggies and flowers in my garden that I'd like to keep alive. Between the 2+ months of incredible flooding and then the quick onset of dry conditions once rain stopped falling, it really hasn't been an very good year for gardeners in our county, though I know some folks had a great melon year or a great tomato year or a great bean year. It is just that it wasn't that great of a year for everything overall. A friend of mine has told me every day this week "I'm ready for September to get here." I understand exactly what she means and I feel the same way. I guess if September doesn't bring relief, we'll start looking ahead and hoping for October to hurry up and get here.