Margret wrote:
Was told that when planting bulbs, it is a good idea to plant
pansies
( or something similar) over them so that the ground won't be bare
while waiting for the bulbs to shoot. Is this a good idea?
Margaret

Depends: if you overplant bulbs, choose something which will look
nice _to you_ when the bulbs are in flower and when the bulbs' leaves
are dying off. You don't want pansies burying and starving your
crocuses, for example. I wouldn't put anything blue near scilla
sibirica, because the wonderful blue of the scilla will spoil the
look of any other.

Bare soil isn't automatically a bad thing, of course, as long as
there's something going on nearby.

Whatever you choose, just go for it: if it works, you can do the same
next year, and if you don't like it so much, try something else. You
can never go _really_ wrong by just enjoying your plants for their
own sake, and letting your ideas develop over the years.

--
Mike.