I garden in sand, and use a garden auger (Home Depot) and electric drill (borrow my spouse’s cordless drill) for large bulbs and also for restoration planting of plant plugs (grasses, sedges, etc) in turf. Works well, though I completely agree with Arnold—this is a great way to spin yourself around and wrench arm and hand joints if the auger catches on heavy roots, buried rocks, metal bits, etc. On the other hand, when I have 500 or more plugs to plant, this is the way to get those holes dug. I typically see more than 95% survival using this method, and keep a bucket of sand on hand to tamp the roots or bulbs into the hole, as I cannot always recover enough soil to fill it. For small bulbs, a hand pick works very well and is faster, unless I am working in very heavy grass turf. As for deterring squirrels and voles from crocus, nothing prevents these animals from finding those bulbs when planted, or months later, in my yard. So I have resorted to hardware cloth cages in plant beds and hypertufa planters with hardware cloth tops above ground. Rainlilies are eaten to the ground, so they now live in meshed frames. Kathleen Sayce Pacific Northwest coast _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…