A few years ago my USDA zone was "upgraded" to 5 and my mother has had crocuses in the lawn for years when we were in zone 4. You are in zone 6, so cold should not be a problem. One could even question if it is cold enough for crocuses but I don't know. 1) Do they get sun before and when they bloom? 2) Are you using Winter or very-early spring blooming crocus? 3a) How many did you find rotting? 3b) Does the rotting show any color? Could it be mold? 4a) How many were missing? 4b) Did something eat them? 4c) Did you find any fragments? 5) If grass is growing then I would doubt that it is nutrient or pH but I would have the soil tested. Be sure to tell the one doing the test that it is for lawn and crocuses. 6) Although you say that you have sandy and well drained soil, Is it possible that water collected for extended times when the ground is frozen? 7) Do you have crocuses elsewhere that are surviving? 8a) Did you apply any chemicals to the lawn? 8b) Is it a rest stop for pets? 9) Could there have been excessive chemicals in the lawn from the previous year? When you planted them, did you dig a hole or press them in? Pressing will damage the corm. We used a steel stake to pierce the ground, dropped in generous pinch (teaspoon ?) of bone meal, a bit of soil, added the corm, filled the hole and they have been blooming ever since. Once they are established, be sure to not cut the grass until after the crocus leaves die back. This could make for a messy lawn. TMQs? Maybe... Hope some of this helps. This post was edited by Emerogork2 on Tue, Oct 28, 14 at 21:13

Before you do anything, tell us where you are. You indicated zone 10. If that is the case then you are likely seeding bermuda seed. And if that is the case, STOP RIGHT NOW! Instead, you have a full month before you are going to get good germination on bermuda seed. Your soil is not hot enough yet. Even Phoenix is just now getting into the 100s during the day. Soil temps lag behind air temps so even Phoenix won't be ready to seed bermuda for another couple of weeks. Take the next few weeks to try and undo the damage you did by rototilling the soil. I'm talking about getting your fluffy soil settled back down, killing new weeds, and releveling the surface. Do that by watering deeply and letting the soil settle. Then use sand to top off the low spots and drag a piece of chain link fence on top of it to take the tops off the piles of sand. Then continue to water to settle the sand and soil. Do that at least every other day until you are happy that the soil is no longer settling. In fact your soil will continue to settle for 2-3 more years, but you did not know that before you rototilled...unless you had been reading here. Bermuda on a rototilled lawn is possibly the most unsatisfactory turf you can create. Bermuda needs to be mowed at your mower's lowest setting, but the bumpy surface will cause your mower to scalp it here and there. Those homeowners write in here ALL THE TIME. Rototilling is the cause, not the solution. The solution is to settle the soil completely, level it at the surface, and then seed your bermuda. When you seed the bermuda, you do not need anything to cover it up. You need to use a water fillable roller to roll the seed down to make good seed-to-soil contact. Rolling it takes the place of covering it with mulch. You will have the right weight on the roller when you can walk with shoes on behind the roller and not leave any foot prints. If there are foot prints after the roller, add more water to it. I walked over someone's brand new sod a few weeks ago and sunk in about an inch with every step. He's going to have a serious mess this summer. Tell us where you live and what grass you are seeding.

Flora, That looks great! I have behind my barn, 6000+ bricks. I was thinking of laying a border of them side by side (vs. end to end) for the lawn mower. However, one of the things that has prevented me from edging anything with anything but Round-Up, is that I have 3 acres of beds. As it is, right now the only chemical I use at all is Round-Up. I fight poison ivy, so I always have it. I simply sprayed the edges of my beds so I could mow on the dead edge. The mulch is mounded up abruptly, so there is a defined edge of the garden. The Round-Up creates kind of a no-man's land. Unfortunately, although it does a good job of keeping the weeds and grass from growing into the beds, it's not the prettiest at all. I love the idea of the edging + the bricks/stones. I might become a little OCD about this and try one of my smaller beds. That'll only be maybe 150' x 15 to 30' wide! Oh - and for anyone who is looking for bricks? Don't forget Freecycle. People have all this stuff stacked up behind their houses.... Christine

Thanks. Maybe I will save the coffee grounds for the compost pile and just try the other sources of nitrogen/protein for the lawn. The more I am reading the more I think I should apply something sooner than the Memorial Day/July 4th, Labor Day schedule I had read about. I guess for the bermuda I should plan on every month so that would be about now then. When people rotate what they use is there any rhyme or reason to the order they choose? i would thing maybe Corn Meal would be best applied in the heat of the summer since it fights fungus problems, but other than that if I am trying say 4 different things would the order matter? I am thinking of trying 1 application each of-- SBM, CM, Scott's Organic, and Milorganite. I may add Alfalfa pellets if I wind up with a 5th feed. I assume Bermuda should be fed up until around late September/early October here in the Atlanta area? I may use CGM as the last feed to try and get this annual bluegrass from taking over so bad in the winter. It is just so expensive around here.