You should be seeing foliage from bulbs popping out of the ground

Tulips and daffodils are starting to grow, with early bulbs coming into flower.

The Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe has snowdrops, crocus and winter aconite in flower now. Leaves show first on later-flowering bulbs, with flower buds appearing much later.

Subsequent cold weather might damage the edges of the aboveground foliage, but unless the flower bud has appeared, the cold will not affect the future flowering or health of the bulb.

A few small early bulbs can tolerate a bit of frost. They include winter aconite and glory-of-the-snow as well as snowdrops.

• Protect emerging tulips from deer and rabbit damage by spraying with a repellent or covering with netting.

These animals may be more aggressively looking for plants to eat this spring after the difficult winter.

Repellents need to be reapplied after rain. Netting will need to be adjusted as bulbs grow and may need to be weighted down to keep from blowing away.

Animals do not typically eat daffodils, Siberian squill or ornamental onions.

• New spades do not come with a sharp edge, so use an electric hand grinder to sharpen them as well as your old spades.

Move the grinder back and forth across the edge of the spade while keeping a consistent angle and gentle pressure. Spades that have very thick edges or that are corrugated tend to require more pressure on the grinder to sharpen.

Try not to hold the grinder in one place too long to avoid an excessive buildup of heat that can cause the metal to turn black. I prefer to sharpen the inside edge of the spade.

It is much easier to garden with sharp equipment. Wear ear and eye protection while doing this work, as there will be a lot of noise and sparks.

• Tim Johnson is director of horticulture at Chicago Botanic Garden, chicagobotanic.org.