If it were me: I'd remove the weed cloth now. I've not seen it do anything good for the development of a good soil structure in clay. Gravel: I'd be thinking a mix of sizes rather than a single screen size. My preference would be for 2,5,7mm which can be useful when it gets dug through the soil/clay. As I'm using it as a mulch I wouldn't put it on any thicker than 2". Less could be better.(Sand is a no-no. It's like uncreamed butter and sugar in an angel cake...). As I'm planting into clay, and if I didn't have too many bulbs, I'd dig out circular shapes for my patches of colour to the depth for my zone and a little extra. Into the extra I'd put a layer of about an inch of the 2mm grit so the roots can get started into a better-drained area. If I could, I'd get a grit that stood out in colour from my soil. Later, when I come to lift the bulbs, I'd be able to see when I've 'hit bedrock' and I'd know to move carefully so I didn't harm my bulbs. Because I'm wanting to improve my soil over time, I'd add some agricultural lime - about an ounce to the square yard. Once I'd covered my bulbs I'd ensure that I stayed off that ground to prevent it from compacting. That's particularly important over times in the year when it's wet. The sad-looking bulbs: I'd plant them up in containers and I'd plant them quite shallowly. Barely covered, and in a free-draining mix - even 50:50 small grit and potting mix with no peat. I wouldn't want the water to stay close to them and I'd want whatever roots they can produce to have lots of encouragement to forage. (I'd even rescue the ones I tossed and give them a go, too.) Those containers I'd put where they get not much more than a couple of degrees of frost, moderate water, and good sunlight. A bit later on, when I see green noses above the soil/gravel (yes they DO come up through gravel) I'd feed them at the prescribed amount with either some potato or tomato food - powdered so it slowly breaks down, and lightly stir it in to the surface of the soil/gravel. Just once. With the damaged bulbs - some might flower. Some will die. Some might only put up leaves and split into smaller bulbs. Which is fine, because I can grow on those daughter bulbs for a year or two to give me 'free bulbs'. Any with streaky leaves I'd dig up and burn because they might have a virus and I'd rather be safe than sorry. All it needs is one travelling aphid and it could spread. No thanks. And next year, when the bulbs are finished for the year, I'd be putting my grass clippings onto the garden strip with a light sprinkling of lime, followed by as many autumn leaves as I could scrounge. Welcome mats for the earthworms. As an aside - if you do use the smaller grit sizes you can plant into it. The small 'johnny-jump-up' pansies, florists' anemones, verbascum, dianthus-pinks, linaria, eschscholzia, and a good range of other annuals will grow there - especially if you can provide some water over the summer. They may not be huge/lush but they will be sturdy and colourful. When it comes to weeding over the gravel (yes you DO have to weed...:-( ) use a two-tine hand fork or weed hook rather than anything conventional. If you use a knife, that will work, too. Forget spades - and rotary tillers. They're often not good for the health of the soil structure on clay.

Well no one is selling Angels' Brush Cherry around here, and Lavender Twist is small and doesn't seem to be fussy about soil conditions which is good. My soil is awful but I grow another magnolia, Randy, as a lawn tree. It blooms beautifully but it gets some awful fungal thing shortly after leaves appear. It's not too much sun which can cause leaves to look bad because it begins late spring. Maybe the soil conditions contribute to poor immunity?? Maybe because I amended th soil when I planted it? Anyway other trees I considered (chaste tree, cherries, - there's something wrong and won't work in this environment. Crepe myrtles do great but I already have 3.

Behind the houses on my street, there is a tulip poplar that is roughly 100 feet tall with about only 30' spread (wooded area) and when the builder cleared this land for development they carved away half the root system of this particular tree right on the property line. It's hard to tell from this photo but just use your imagination to see that on one side of the tree the ground is about 5 feet lower and the roots were all bulldozed out. Well, this tree had looked fine, not great, but ok since the "great disaster". I can only guess this occured about 4-6 years ago. Unfortunately this year, it looks to have about 2 dozen leaves on the tree. Most branches are bare. We've had a serious drought but even still, healthy tulip poplars have been thriving regardless. I wouldn't be surprised if this is it's last year or it's second to last year of life. Then I suspect it will be eventually crashing down on our ill-maintened community which would be lots of fun. So I noticed when trees damaged by construction like this may live a little bit longer, you should get mentally prepared to make funeral- er I mean removal arrangements for it pending an inspection from a certified arborist. The good news is you're in CT. You're surrounded by trees and other beatutiful nature. It won't be too difficult to replace not take that long to impress you once again.

We're fine here. Love County has damage from some small (hopefully small!) tornadoes that hit in/near Orr, Greenville/Overbrook and near Enville and Lebanon. Reported structure damage to some homes, trees, power lines, etc. but no know injuries so far. News is very sketchy. Here in southern OK there have been tornadoes everywhere....in literally every county....and up to baseball-sized hail. Our highest recorded wind gust in the last hour is 51 mph and we have some fruit tree limbs down. I won't know more until morning but we're fine. Carol, there's another squall line moving now into northern Carter County that might have large hail but no tornadic circulations. It may come on into Love County after it exits Carter County. Two potential tornadoes at this minute near Calera and Platter, OK. It is quieting down here but it isn't over. Bryan County and Marshall County now seem to be the busiest with troublesome little funnel clouds. I need to go officially check-in at the check-in thread. Tell y'all later about Yellow Cat. I'm out of the hidey hole and back inside watching KXII. Hope all y'all are well. Dawn