Nobody around here does this

There might be a reason but not one I can think of. You should have cool enough winters for most daffs to flower. But maybe not? They also aren't at their best on very sandy soils.

I'd find someone local who either can grow daffs, or has tried and failed.

"I think it would look nice in Spring and they die before the grass really needs mowing anyway."

Hmmm. I am not too sure about this part of your plan. Small daffodils - mini, I mean may die back sooner than the large ones. The large ones don't die back until July in my garden. Before then, the foliage looks quite umkempt. I have learned to stuff the garden with other things to draw attention from the daffodil foilage while it replenishes the bulbs for the following spring.

That said, the last couple weeks, I stuffed the parkway with 100 full size daffodils and a few hundred mini daffodils and minor bulbs on my front lawn. I'll see how unkempt they will be. :-)

I'd also question the grass mowing situation.......in my zone 8 climate, grass grows all through winter, albeit slowly, and generally needs a good trim in mid-February before active growth gets it too tall. Few daffs will have sufficiently ripened foliage by that time (or even bloomed), so you are faced with either a long, unkempt looking lawn or a single season bulb display. The very early blooming spring bulbs, like crocus, are best used in this manner and even those can present a foliage conflict with mowing lawns.

You may be best trying your process with flower beds where the bulbs can bloom and foliage ripen without problems. The toss and plant method DOES provide for a very naturalistic looking planting. Or in a lightly wooded, meadow-edge location where mowing is not an issue.

Ok thanks Gardenweb members, I am pretty inexperienced and I appreciate the help of the group.

I can see what you mean the grass proobly would get very tall if I had to wait for the flowers to bloom before cutting them let alone long enough for the folliage to die down to stire energy for next year.

How about this for a plan B. Can I throw them out in an area and they plant them THEN cover the area with large pieces of cardboard and mulch over that?

I have been wanting to get rid of alot of my grass anyway and this seems like a good way to do it.

While I am at it are there bulbs I can plant at the same time that will bloom late Spring, Summer, Late Summer Fall etc so I can have a year round blooming bed while planting everything at one time..

This would also eliminate the chance that I would be planting other perenials over top of my dafs.

Any strategy suggestions for a newbie gardener. I would like to have LOTS of blooms and somehting that is easy to grow in my area. Zone 8 Pretty sandy soil. I know dafodils grow well here I see them everywhere in SPring, but what else...

Thanks
Kevin

Kevin,

Check out this thread. You'll get some ideas on how to plan your bulb garden. I'm at work right now, but will post a longer thread later.

Have fun reading & planting. :-D

Here is a link that might be useful: Bulbs for spring, summer & fall

"How about this for a plan B. Can I throw them out in an area and they plant them THEN cover the area with large pieces of cardboard and mulch over that?"

This plan will work if you use cardboard that is not very dense and wet it down well before covering with mulch. It will disintegrate by the time your bulbs start to push through. The question is: will your grass be dead by then? I don't know whether in your zone, grass stays green through the winter or not. If it does, then you won't have any problem with this method. I did that with mine last March with my Zoysia grass. I just checked again last week before planting bulbs. To my pleasure, the grass WAS dead and all the cardboards had gone mushy. Only the thick newspapers added throughout the summer had not broken down.

"I have been wanting to get rid of alot of my grass anyway and this seems like a good way to do it."

It is the easiest way to do it in my opinion.

"While I am at it are there bulbs I can plant at the same time that will bloom late Spring, Summer, Late Summer Fall etc so I can have a year round blooming bed while planting everything at one time."

Plant various spring bulbs, then Allium to bridge spring and summer, then Lilies, then Colchicum and fall crocus. Check out bulb catalogs and check blooming time of those bulbs. Check out the thread above too for ideas.

"This would also eliminate the chance that I would be planting other perenials over top of my dafs."

Nor necessarily so. I have a lot of bulbs among perennials and shrubs. In my garden, I have something interesting to look at all year.

Have fun. Your winter is milder than mine. You'll have more choices.

I have doubts about the cardboard at this point. Daffs will be breaking through the soil in SC in a couple of months, maybe less, and I think they'll have trouble with the cardboard that soon.

I think shubs n bulbs is right. I don't have any knowledge of SC climate. Would thick mulch work without cardboard? Might as well try it. If it doesn't kill the grass, you'll have to pull it out later???!!??

What if you leave the planting holes uncovered and cover the areas that are not planted? That will be better than not covering the grass at all, won't it?

Thanks for all the advice, I am taking a combination of your ideas, Here is what I did. I put down the cardboard wet it down alot and covered with mulch. THEN I used the bulb auger to go through the cardboard then planted the bulbs. Sound OK?

I started the process today and planted about 60 Bulbs I'm going to plant about 150 Total. This seems like a lot for me but I know people here plant 1000's so I'm just getting started..

My method is to plant beds of daffodils leaving wide pathways between and indicating the beds with a bit of pine straw mulch. The beds will look a little rough until the daffodils die down, but the neatly mowed paths will keep it from looking as unkempt as a whole yard of unmown grass.
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Another method is to plant a thin 'river' of daffodils along the edge of a lawn area so that the dying foliage can be contained behind a bit of mulch until they're gone.

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I'm experimenting now with overplanting with early blooming annuals like Silene, corn poppies and larkspur to last until the daffodil foliage is gone.

Nell

joefalco,
"Sound OK? "
Absolutely. In fact, I just did something similar a couple weeks ago. In spring, I placed cardboard and newspapers and mulch over my entire lawn. Two weeks ago, I dug through the papers to plant large bulbs leaving the remaining area covered. I won't have to mow that lawn or weed it ever again. I planted small early blooming cyclamineus narcissi so I hope the foliage will die down sooner than the late blooming ones.

Nell, your narcissi are beautiful. I wish I had room like yours. Maybe someday I will. It's fun to dream, you know. :-)