Making the bulb bed

Here's a pictorial on the making of the bulb bed; first one is my soil sifting rig, which I detailed in the post on planting the Ein Shemer apple.

Next is the partially completed trench, about 1/2 done.

The sifted soil from the trench was placed on a tarp and had to be covered when I wasn't working on the bed to keep the neighborhood cats from using it as a big litter box.

The finished bed, fully planted and mulched.  The trench was lined with weed block fabric to discourage the Bermuda grass, then filled 1/3 of the way with soil, which was then covered with 3 cubic feet of compost.  The bulbs were planted directly into the compost, then dusted with bone meal and covered with soil to within 2" of the top of the plastic edging and topped off with bark mulch. The daffodils are in the center, with tulips on either side; the east end (furthest away in the picture) has gladiolus in back and freesias in the front, while the west end has gladiolus in the back and crocosmia and ranunculus in the front.  Can't wait to see it in bloom.  Solar lights are from the 99 Cent Only Store.

Next up is a revamp of the sunflower bed, which is being expanded, as I have 8 varieties this year.  The current bed is inside an old palm tree stump which has slowly rotted out, except for the outer ring.  I think I'll need my pickaxe and maybe my chainsaw to get that part out.