I'm curious why you'd till an established flower bed? But to answer your question, I always plant (or re-plant in this case) bulbs ASAP.

Purple - The flowerbed had become overrun with quackgrass and bindweed. When we first did the bed years ago, we put down weed barrier and wood chips. Over the years the wood chips broke down and weeds began to grow on top of the barrier. Last weekend we pulled everything out of the bed; weeds, weed barrier, wood chips and all plants I wanted to save. The only thing I left was a clematis, the tulips (which had already yellowed and died) and the strawberries in a large raised bed. I will work around the clematis and strawberry bed (which we redid last summer) but I would like to add some compost to the area where I will replant thus the tilling. Plus the bulbs need to be divided anyway because the blooms have become so small. I probably planted these 12-15 years ago.

Thanks for your response. I will dig them and replant them immediately. I plan on spraying the weeds in this bed for about three weeks in hopes of getting rid of the bindweed. Then we will lay new barrier, add new wood chips and replant. I wish I had taken a before picture.

That a frustrating anecdote, and it's a classic experience people have with weed barrier fabric. When starting any new bed, I smother with cardboard, which decomposes, so never needs to be removed later. Usually grass is the weed I'm trying to get rid of before starting to garden an area, but smothering can kill bindweed and quackgrass if done correctly.

When mowing, aim the chute away from beds to decrease the seeds getting blown into beds.

Some weeds can be increased by tilling, if they are a type of plant that can keep growing from tiny bits of root. IDK if that applies to bindweed or quackgrass, but would investigate before tilling.

Tilling also ruins the soil structure, though after being under weed fabric for years, that's probably a moot point. This brief lecture about soil explains these things more fully.

Adding compost is excellent, and only needs to be added to the surface. The microbes and other soil-dwelling critters will deposit the decomposed bits to their proper level in the soil, to be of most benefit to plants.

A finely-shredded mulch is much better than chips at weed suppression, though no mulch can prevent all weeds. Whenever you are looking at your pretty plants and see a sprout of something, pull it while small, so there's never "weeding to do."

A garden should improve over time, not decline. HTH you reach a more permanent, much less labor-intensive situation. What you've described is extremely hard work.

I have already dug my tulips as of the last week in May, after flowering but with no yellowing on the leaves at all. I left all the foliage attached which has now dried off and I am getting a good cure and have a three or four-fold increase in blooming size bulbs and a pile of dinks on top of it. My favorite are red Apeldoorns. These will keep nicely well into the fall; so do not worry about storing cured tulips - or daffodils - over the summer. As long as they stay dry you can store them in a corner of the garage just fine. (The Dutch do it yearly by the billions of bulbs...)

This is a common way of handling tulips generally getting a two season bed by digging the tulip bulbs, curing them to store out of the ground over the summer after their bloom is done and replanting some other summer flowering plant, such as cannas, which are themselves dug up for winter storage and summer stored dormant tulips are replanted after frost in the fall for the next spring. Quite naturally the beds get re-fertilized and conditioned with every replant and generally also mulched. Some cut flower growers dig their tulips yearly and replant them in freshly worked soil in the fall, very often having surplus bulbs in the process, and a full summer bed for other plantings.

I replant my tulips every year, actually about the same time as I put in my fall garlic. What that does is allow me to rework and refeed the beds. Used up nutrients is the most usual reason tulips decline or "run out". They quite naturally get redivided then too, which will also increase flower size and quality.

I see no reason not to use a similar technique on daffodils. I use the old window screens in my front screen porch for curing all my bulbs, including garlic and onions, as well as tulips. Works well for potatoes, too.

For daffodils as opposed to garlic and tulips an early planting for as long a fall rooting period as possible gives the best results. If your gifted daffodils are cured they also should hold until time to plant them later or as you wish.

Dig, cure and store is my advice for your bulbs. Also spraying with something like Roundup is about the only sure way to reduce quack and creeping jenny, both of which are really hard-assed, hardy perennial weeds with extensive root systems. Creeping Jenny has documented roots growing as deep as 20', and every little bit of either will grow a new patch. Personally I would suggest scorched earth until fall for best eradication, BEFORE you till for the first time. Just get your tulips out before you spray anything.

There is no safely organic or PC correct way I know to control either of these two weeds. BTW neither is native to North America, showing what accidental or indiscriminate spread of exotic species can do. No mulch at all will prevent quack and creeping jenny, unless it smothers everything, and even then the outcome is questionable, not that a mulch as part of the finished bed is not a good thing, but established plants of fully aggressive perennials like these two will come right through nearly all of them. It will pay you to kill as many of the established weeds as possible, since mulch later is much more effective on the new seedlings that are sure to follow.

Val I think you already have enough advice, just wanted to commiserate :)
I just started clearing out my daffodil and iris bed. It started with a few interesting seedlings I thought I would get around to transplanting, added a few perennials which I didn't think would grow as quickly, and then quackgrass and sheep's sorrel moved in (thank God no bindweed). I'm digging all the daffs, moving the iris, and planting sunflowers and mulching for a year until I can get the weeds back in check. This is the after-weeding picture and start of digging.... I needed to pull all the grass to find the daffodil clumps but there's a thick mat of roots just waiting to resprout. Good luck to you and please wish me the same!
>oops, the picture won't upload and I can't easily make it smaller.... who needs to see more weed pictures anyway!?

OldDutch, smothering works, but can't be done with only mulch. There must be a solid layer of something under it. Cardboard is what I find most handy. It's much easier to work with than newspaper, which will also work but tears so easily, which means failure. Either are organic, will decompose, so do not need to be removed later.

"Roundup is about the only sure way to reduce quack and creeping jenny... There is no safely organic or PC correct way I know to control either of these two weeds."

Neither of these plants are strong enough to break through a properly done smother. No chemicals are needed.

The cardboard needs to be able to make contact with the ground, so mowing first is very helpful. It needs to overlap so plants can't exploit the seams. There must be enough weight placed on it (mulch and/or other organic matter) to keep it in place and to be heavy enough that the weeds can't keep growing, blocking all of the light, air, space.