Maybe AlÂs squirrels have enough nuts to eat and thatÂs why they donÂt bother his tulips. The first year I planted them I soaked them in red pepper dip and they did not dig them up. They bloomed well but I had to keep going out the spray the blooms. The second year they dug up and ate or nipped almost all of the bulbs, despite the red pepper dip (not just tulips, plenty of other bulbs, puschkinia, every last crocus out of hundreds). ItÂs like they suddenly discovered I had tulips/bulbs and were now watching me. The third year I planted little alliums in every hole with the tulips, plus sprayed the bulbs in the hole with Tabasco spray. They dug them up, tossed the alliums aside, and ate the tulips. The fourth year I ordered tulips on sale late. I kept stalling for a spot of better weather to plant them, and it never came. It was mid December and freezing cold before I planted them. There didnÂt seem to be any squirrels around, maybe because it was so cold, they were all tunneled in somewhere. I did a lousy job of planting because I just wanted to get inside. I camouflaged the holes with dead leaves. None of those were dug up. Last year I was planting crocus, anemones, and species tulips in mid November. I saw the squirrels watching me and knew I was in trouble. I planted some one day and the next morning saw the digging and knew they were gone. The next ones I planted in clusters (even though that was not the arrangement I wanted for them) and put a big 1 foot landscaping stone over each cluster. The next morning I could see from the digging around each stone how hard they had tried, also how far they would tunnel under each before giving up. I planted all the rest of the bulbs that way. But the next spring only the tulips came up. I think the crocus and anemones rotted under the stones, I should have removed them once it got really cold like January; or after the squirrels had time to forget. I have not bought any tulips this year, though I did buy one package of crocus. IÂm going to try something that has been suggested here. I bought a roll of green hardware cloth, mesh maybe one half inch. I will cover each cluster with this, edges bent down to lock it into the soil. IÂm going to see if this works, and how much trouble it is, before I try more of the things they find tastiest. I bought things I know they donÂt eat, lots of daffodils and alliums. I still have to go out from the first tulip buds and spray with repellent. I don't have deer but the rabbits eat the flowers too. So I would try either one: plant so late that they arenÂt around, or cage/cover your bulbs with wire. DonÂt spend a lot until you know which will work for the level of determination found in the squirrels in your yard.

As one of the major contributors to that thread, I apologize for any angst my comments there inadvertently caused you. I side with the previous folks that you might as well leave things as they are. Go back to the end of that topic and you can read about someone who made a highly amended planting hole with the hope it would help dwarf the fruit trees being planted. Turned out the roots grew right out of the amended holes into hard clay soil. The dwarfing affect never materialized. The most common result of amending backfill when transplanting trees is no noticeable result at all. Just be sure the soil the roots are in and growing to remains moist during the growing season. The commentator with the failed dwarfing experiment, I think quite correctly, asserted that whether or not we amend backfill is not really one of the major issues in getting our fruit trees to thrive.

Lava sand in any amount appears to work very well in our alkaline clay here in Dallas. Mixed in or as a top dressing. I have used it and unlike other sands, it has a lot of surface area and holds air and water unlike regular sand. I have pulled up plants and the roots that have lava sand in the soil seem to develop a much larger mass in a short period of time. I would not use any other sand in clay and even at 10 percent in some of my beds, it's a miracle amendment from my experience. Superior tilth. Greensand and dried molasses appear to work very well with the alkaline clay here,as well, in breaking up the clay at the micro level and fertilizes very well. Of course, I mulch very high anually but it's all free. This year the areas of the bed treated with greensand and molasses are growing faster than the beds that were mulched only. I've been totally organic for five years now, I use discarded leaf and grass matter from various neighbors who discard it to the curb in bags, and am a practioner of very low nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium with high micronutrient fertilization practices. I also use a commercial soil innoculant product at least once a year. I have the best looking plants and grass in the neighborhood, and I know of nobody else who is strictly organic on our street. Nobody would believe me if I told them, you're doing it all wrong but I don't bother I'm quietly very satisfied with organic practices with supposedly terrible clay. Bottom line, lots of organic material and clay are a gardener's best friend, no sand necessary but lava sand is a different substance and it's awesome as an amendment or top dressing. You can water it very deeply and not water it again for awhile until visible signs of plant stress and this will encourage very deep roots.

Copper is a mineral, a natural component of all soil and needed by plants to survive. Anything used in excess can be toxic but the actual amount of copper contained in most all the fungicide sprays is quite low - less than 0.5% in most while the rest is a marginal amount of sulfates in some form and 99% inert ingredients. So exposure due to fungicide spraying is minimal unless one bathes in it. I am not pushing the use of copper-based fungicides and their effectiveness, especially when compared to the performance of some of the synthetic brands, is very debatable. But given the amount of tomato fungus diseases, the use of some form of fungicide is often required IF one wants any tomato crop at all. In those situations many would advocate using copper as it is somewhat effective and the least toxic of what is available. Of course we always have the option of using nothing at all and accepting the poor end results or giving up on growing tomatoes. Dave