Do you think frequent mowing and re-seeding a few times a season with hardy grass seed will perhaps choke them out? No, nothing will choke out that bulb. I could show you some amazing pics...sometime later, like where it forced itself up through the blacktop drive that was put in the previous fall. What you 'might' consider doing, is solarizing the soil in the very hottest part of the summer, for maybe 6 weeks, and hope that it maybe bakes the bulbs. Clear plastic I've read, will warm up more underneath than black plastic. You could try a section of the lawn this summer, and then reseed that portion this fall, and see what the spring might bring. The link below tells how to solarize the soil. The same garden center that incorrectly told me it was Scilla also recommended that I pour a mixture of lemon juice and vinegar into the deep holes that I dig the clumps out of - that the acidity would kill any little bulbs left behind. What I do, is dig on my hands and knees and am careful to get additional soil with the clump of bulbs, and check to see if there is any green foliage around the sides of the hole. I doubt if your salad dressing is really doing anything except wasting your time and $$. I use a bulb planter to dig down deep enough to get at the bulbs, so my yard looks like a demented putting green. Mine looks more like a battle field, and am just thankful for the beds I have that are bulb free. On one bed I made, I dug it out to a depth of about 6 inches, and then brought in good woods dirt that was bulb free. Here is a link that might be useful: How to Solarize Soil

I have a patch of sob's that are 20 feet wide and 50 feet long. The new bed area I have digging in this spring is about 8' wide by about 100' long, so you can understand the magnitude of my spring project just for that one new bed. The bad thing is that I already have more than enough plants and shrubs to fill it once it is completed. They are here and there right now, but mostly taking up space in the veggie garden in rows. When my house was built 18 years ago that spot in the yard needed to be filled in with some dirt so my contractor, who lives about a mile away, used a front end loader and brought several scoops of dirt for that spot. Same thing happened here. When the house was built 20 years ago, the builder ran into slate when he was digging the basement. Because of that the house was built sitting up higher above the ground than it normally would have been. He then got 65 dump truck loads of sob infested soil out of the adjoining field to fix the yard and slope away from the house just right. It all ended up good as I have good drainage and all, just have the resulting sob. We got rain yesterday so that will cause any bulbs I have missed to maybe sprout some green so I can better find them in the loose soils I have all dug up so far. I 'know' there will be some that will be missed, but will do light digs for them in the springs to come. Last spring I dug them out from in front of the front porch and a small triangle on one side. I never planted it though as I wanted to wait and check for more this spring. Yes, there were a few that had been missed but surprisingly there weren't many at all. I now feel pretty confident that those new areas are sob free, so later I can and will amend the soil and plant some things in those areas. For having lived here for 20 years, this place is sure a diamond in the rough. It has only been in the last 5 years or so though that I have been what you might say 'obsessed' with acquiring and growing so many things. Here is the proposed new bed I have been working on. There are some shrubs in it already and since there is sob in the root areas of them they will need lifted and reset. You can see the field at the left and where I have dumped all my buckets of sob infested soil. At least I don't have to go far to dispose of it. The field is green with the sob foliage each spring. Here are some bulbs that are exposed at the edge of an existing bed...that I would like to expand if time permits. This is an iris I planted last year in another sob area I am working on this spring. I planted the iris on top of the soil, knowing there was a good chance there was sob in the soil. Several irises will need lifted and reset as they look like this one, or worse....sigh...but I had to go somewhere with them. End of rant. It looks like it is going to be a perfect s.o.b. digging day today. 63 with just a light breeze and the soil is good and moist. Sue

I was wondering if perhaps lasagna gardening could kill off your SOB's. Nope...that wont do it. I have a big mulch pile of tree trimmer mulch. The sob have come up in it were the mulch is 12-14 inches deep. The camper shell (truck topper) fell over last winter, and the top of the shell is laying flat on the ground. I just know that once I empty the water out of it and pick it up, that I will find that the sob still came up under it. I'll try and get pics once I pick it up. What does anyone bet that it came up in total darkness after being covered about 5 months (more or less)? I had some pieces of drywall I had laid on the ground behind the shed...just to see if they 'might' smother it. NO...it came up, and the foliage grew real long, reaching for the edge of it and daylight. I may try solarization on a small scale with clear plastic pinned to the ground during the very steamiest months this summer. The bad part about that though is trying to keep 3 doggies off of it with their sharp toe nails...sigh. I'm heading to the woods with my furbabies to look for wildflowers I don't have and maybe mushrooms. Sue

Among the big bulbs are daffodils. If I were just starting out I'd buy small packages of a bunch of different kinds and keep the labels over the winter. The reason you should keep the labels is there is no way to know from the pictures which ones you will end up liking, and because foliage is so long lasting, big plantings spend more time ugly than in bloom. For me their worth it, because ones like thallia and poet's narcissus are so flat out beautiful, I wouldn't be without then, plus deer won't touch them. All of the minor bulbs are worth trying, like siberian squill and snow drops, and a dozen others. Avoid grape hyacinth, no matter how good the photos look. You get tons a foliage that won't quit ever, and it will be with you until the day you die or move. The only other advice is don't plant any bulbs where water tends to stand, since water will kill most bulbs even quicker than deer. And another thing, don't give up. It takes year to discover what is both pleasing and will grow in your yard. Every yard is different, and gardener is in some sense always a beginner, even in their 90th year.