If your tulips are diseased you need to find out why. There are tulip disease which will persist and planting more is just throwing good money after bad. The symptom of distorted petals is typically down to poor bulb treatment the previous summer, possibly poor conditions over the winter, and occasionally insect damage. Diseases, other than tulip breaking virus, tends to affect the leaves quite badly. Lifting tulip bulbs over the summer is indeed a good thing to do if your climate and suitable are not ideal. Tulip bulbs in heavy soils can receive too much water over the summer which will cause them to be weak the following year. Or they may split excessively and never become large enough to flower. Hot humid climates seem to cause the same problems. You might want to leave some in the ground and lift others, just to see how well they do in your garden. If you are going to dig them at all then dig them now, or as soon as the leaves go yellow, and store them cool and dry over the summer. Replant them in November, or maybe October, once the soil has cooled down but before it freezes solid. You can plant annuals in the same area but it isn't ideal for the tulips. Some people deliberately overplant to hide the dying foliage. This is bad because the foliage needs maximum sunlight to recharge for next year. Beds with annuals also tend to get watered quite a lot over the summer, again not good for the tulips. These are two of the reasons why tulips often repeat poorly. If you are going to leave the bulbs in the ground and overplant, think about doing it fairly late to give the leaves as much sun as possible, and think about using plants that don't need extra water and fertiliser, like Cosmos or Iceplants.

Hi Ninecrow, Actually, short days prompt CC/TC into bloom, but cool/cold temps work, too. Since I never know what I'll be doing at precisely 5:PM, daily, 'to cover CC/TC,' instead they're kept outside until first and/or second frost or once buds set in. When buds are sturdy enough, indoors TC come, placed in a cool, bright room. There are a few ppl I've known who did nothing w/their CC/TC, yet their holiday plants flowered away. No short day treatment, no cold temps. So, nothing is impossible. Long ago, before I was aware cold temps would promote buds, I tried the short-day treatment, but my CC/TC never bloomed. So, discovering the easy task of leaving plants outside made a complicated task, simple. If your bedroom light isn't turned on after 'X' time, your CC should flower. Toni

Any worm is a good fishing worm, even skinny little red wigglers. You either use small hooks or use 3-4 at a time. I have caught large catfish with tiny worms and hook. When I used to search for fishing worms, I would look in any manure pile. As long as the manire is damp, worms show up in a couple of months or less around here. Another great place to look is under ANYTHING laying flat on the ground for a few months or more. Old scrap of plywood, cardboard, old carpet, really anything. Use all that cardboard from your move. Dampen and layer thick, maybe something else on top to hold it down, and I bet they come. If I were to start a worm bed from scratch here with just manure or compost, it would take about 3-4 months to get well populated with worms. Your climate and area may be different. My worm beds have been "infiltrated" by rats, mice, ravens, chickens, moles, and something a little bigger that digs in some nights. I cover my wormbeds with old carpet and blankets and put heavier items on to weigh them down. I loose some, but I have plenty! Colteral damage is the military term. Good luck and let us know how it goes. Pete

I agree.........although some cats crave contact with humans on a regular basis, it's often with select humans and not humans in general. Cats are very sensitive to their surroundings and often do better without their humans in familiar surroundings than in unfamiliar territory with humans they do know (like visiting at the vets) or worse yet, in unfamiliar surroundings with unfamiliar people. What you may consider is to give your vet a head's up that your cat may be brought in by another party if needed and he/she has the authority to do it for care or boarding. Then let your neighbor take over. It may fly very well and he'll have no difficulties. If he does, however, he can take the cat to the vet for boarding with your prior permission. If this happens, the cat may stop eating for awhile and do their separation thing, but it would be monitored and they won't let the situation get too out of hand. The important thing for a twelve day hiatus, is that the person whom you trust to feed your cat is completely trustworthy to actually come in and do it on a daily basis. You may want to take their phone number and make a call every three days to monitor their success. I have routinely done this for my daughter and her spouse when they travel out of country, and even though the cats know me well..........they will do the hiding routine for the first couple days. So, if your neighbor is not familiar with cat quirks, remind him to check the food dish/water dish/ and contents of the cat's pan to make sure the contents of the appropriate receptacles are either disappearing or accumulating. LOL. He may never even catch sight of the cat, is what I am saying.