60 dandelions gone, 60 crocus planted, and 2 new gardeners.

So this afternoon, my non-gardening wife, 6 yo son, and I got out in the front yard. I used a knock off "Grandpa's Weeder" to remove dandelions, mom oversaw and assisted Ty planting the bulb root down and covering it with compost. This earned him 10 cents per bulb, and there were 60 bulbs in the bag. I told him that each pine cone collected was worth 5 cents. He badly wanted a certain Lego, so he picked up (with some help) 280 pine cones from the front yard.

And Ty agreed to help plant more crocus if I got more, and I have room for about 60 more. I am only doing one side of my yard as it is the worst grass, most dandelions and no mole/vole issues. The other side has year around active ones. My raised bed garden has fencing to guard against intrusion.

Fun day! Will really enjoy seeing the results next spring. Pictures will be in order, of course.

Such a great idea, Rob. And how fun for Ty to be able to say that he was a big part of the proceedings. Not to mention that certain Lego he'll get to buy with his own money . . .

Sounds like a great project, and a great way to introduce a son to gardening. Not only will it be nice to see pictures of the results, but to hear how Ty reacts to seeing the results of his labor next spring!

I have a video of part of the action, but there are still 40 to go, and I will see what we can get for the web, videos at the gathering of course.

Ok guys, now I have a problem, squirrels.

Any way some appear to be dug up and not eaten, others dug and eaten and I think its about 2/3rds of them.

What can I do to get these critters to leave my bulbs alone?

So, Thursday, I went out and pulled 39 more Dandilions, dug down to 4", planted the crocus, covered with natural soil, and added potting soil on top and stomped it down.

Then to hopefully really mess them up, I emptied the rest of the potting soil (it really did not seem to have any amendments other than partially decomposed wood chips) on the lawn and raked it into the grass as this grass only grows on mineral soil.

Seems to have worked so far, the area with soil raked over is untouched, and I found one I did not rake over, and the little hole stopped at the potting soil.