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.

Wow - ok I have to digest all of that. Looks like I did just about EVERYTHING wrong. LOL! But that's how one learns....I'll know the uncorrectable things for next time.

Thank you SO MUCH for such a thorough response, Vetiver. It's created more questions (which I won't push my luck by asking right now lol ) but I have plenty to do there, don't I.....

It looks as if you have the first vital ingredient for a gardener - unquenchable optimism! Well done - and for the courage to ask.

About the watering: do you get reliable rain over the winter? At least once in each ten days - and a good soaking rain when it comes. (The soil is wetted down past the first inch or so.) If you do, and whatever else is growing doesn't look dry and miserable - there's no need to water.

Is your garden visited by rodents and larger creatures that dig and fossick in the garden? (Squirrels, raccoons, mousies and such.) That's when you'd need to take precautions for keeping your bulbs from becoming snacks.

I'm not sure if feral deer browse tulip leaves, though I know that cattle and sheep don't usually touch daffodil foliage. If you are situated on a deer path perhaps some exclusion fencing could help.

With the lighting situation you've mentioned - see what happens. You've got a newly amended garden bed. You've got morning shade and afternoon sun which intensifies as the season progresses. At this point - you know you'd like to grow tulips but the site you have in mind is unproven. If the shade is more 'light' - the sort you get away from a building -you may find that bulbs are slower to come into flower and your planting scheme is out on its timing. If the shade is caused by a building you may need to check to see if it forms a 'frost site' which stays colder than other parts of the garden.

Weed cloth is usually used over the soil surface. Spread it like a bedsheet, hold down the edges so it doesn't move under wind or waterflow, and top it with a disguising mulch. For planting - make a slit and plant through it. I personally don't like it, though it can be useful. Determined weeds will get through it, however, and then it becomes arduous to remove. The cover mulch is guaranteed to move and become thin and show the matting to the world.

For all those questions you've got fizzing away there - there are also the forums for your particular region, the New To Gardening forum and the specialist ones for perennials and shrubs. Some are 'slow' with only quiet traffic, but you can usually get an answer.

HI omooya, welcome to the gardening world.
There's not much I can add to vetivert8's excellent advice, but I just wanted to mention that in your zone it's likely the tulips will perform best as annuals and unless you choose types that tend to return each year it might not be worth the trouble to provide them with all the care they need.
It sounds like the soil has been prepared well so that's a BIG part already done. If growing the tulips as annuals (the easy way out), just poke em down about 6 inches and let them do their magic. They are already programmed to grow and bloom next spring no matter how poorly or well you care for them..... provided the soil is well drained.
I'm picturing your home as new construction on a lot that has a few pine trees and sits on a nice spot of red Carolina clay. Tulips will be perfect along the walk, but remember their bloom season is short. How about interplanting a few flats of pansies for winter and spring color? The tulips will rise up above the pansies and look perfect.... plus if a few of the tulips don't come up as planned it won't be as obvious.
I'm not a big fan of landscape fabric and also not a fan of gravel unless it's a rock garden. I'll keep my opinions on that to myself until I know you better and can make fun of you for it.
Kato

You did the right thing as far as trying to salvage what you could and just giving it a go. The ones that may in the end rot won't hurt the others, not once they are planted out. My experience (I'm also in zone 7) has always been that the later the planting the better, with tulips anyway - our winters are not harsh enough to prevent root growth over the winter and I try to minimize the time the squirrels have to ravage new plantings (see below) before they hibernate.

I agree pretty much with what's above, especially Kato's comments about tulips as annuals. Except for the species types, which really will perform as perennials in the kind of gravelly well drained soils similar to those in the Mediterranean/Western Asia, where many of them are native, even the hybrids touted as perennials have tended to poop out for me after the second year, at best.

Regardless, don't use the weed cloth - the emerging top growth will have no problems getting through stones up to the size of your fist or so, no need to remove gravel if you like the look of it, and it will help keep the weeds down the rest of the year.

As for the chicken wire, in the end it will rust away if you leave it in place, the iron will actually be good for the soil. In the beginning, what it really does is help keep the squirrels from doing a quick steal when the bulbs are newly planted and are not rooted in - squirrels love to look through freshly disturbed soil. The chicken wire will do nothing against moles and voles (both before and after the bulbs are rooted) that are tunneling around looking for something to eat. If you have mole/vole problems and really want the tulips, you can bury mothballs, perhaps one a square foot, in your bulb beds and they will discourage the pests but not completely deter them. Some pest animals are also discouraged if you mix blood meal (available at many garden centers) into the soil - it smells like a predator to them.

Deer, by the way, consider the tender, emerging tulip buds and foliage totally delectable.

If you really want perennial bulbs that are not much disturbed by critters, try daffodils, crocus, Scilla, Fritillaria. All that said, there is nothing to compare to a big swath of tulips waving in the breeze on a sunny May day; like roses, though, it's just a high-maintenance proposition.

- Steve

P.S. Vetivert8 - tell me more about the marvelous word "fossick."

Hello,

My goodness, I'm sorry I took so long to say thank you!
Wonderful advice from everyone. I'll take much of it to heart next year when considering my fall/winter planting and using what I learned this year.

Kato - you're right as rain about the planting environment - have you been visiting my house? LOL! No that's right. They're all new constructions with little flower beds in front aren't, they? :p

Make all the fun you like, I've got a sense of humor. :)

Well - I made mistake number 9482834298342938. LOL! Left the chicken wire I decided to add down too long (it was a very fine wire...maybe 1/4 inch holes?) and the tulips had begun to come up underneath. I think I damaged some. SO many were coming up though. I would have been quite a show. Still hoping for something though...

We'll see.

"If you really want perennial bulbs that are not much disturbed by critters, try daffodils, crocus, Scilla, Fritillaria"

Thanks for the ideas. :) I was wondering what else I might plant that would be less labor intensive from a theft standpoint. :D

Greenguy - I'll try the mothballs next time around. I made a serious blunder with that chicken wire for sure. I wish I HAD used something I could have left down. *sigh*

Kato - I didn't consider what else I might put there earlier. Is it too late to do anything else now? I'll check out some of the other forums you mentioned as well.

Thanks everyone, SO much. Even if my little tulips don't flower, I feel so accomplished seeing the heads of so many of them poppinig out of the soil. :D At least 60 or so are peeking out to say hello. Some look healthier than others. The ones under the wire really suffered some though. I hope at least a few flower.