Gardening, Mulch, Composting, and planning the garden, leaves, tules, and water lily's, is it spring yet?

  I awoke yesterday morning to the sight of a hawk preening at the top of the Pecan tree outside of the window. That tree is full of life, the camera on my cell phone is not of the quality to take a photo at a distance, the zoom is, well, weird. The bird looked like it may have been a Northern Harrier, but sometimes Red Tail Hawks are colored differently, I did not look at it with my binoculars like I usually do. I hesitate to use my binoculars to look at that tree, it's about 50 yards away however my neighbor's bedroom window is just behind it. I have no interest in looking through that window, but I can see how it could look like I am. I would rather not take the chance, during the summer it's full of leaves and the house is hidden, but there are no leaves on it during the winter. Plus it's foggy here this time of year, it's not like the cabin fever of the North during the months of January, and February but it can get dreary. The winter months are actually fairly nice, when the sun shines, which is often, the temperature stays above freezing and greenhouses do their job.

Two of my leaf towers, and assorted plastic bins full of leaves.

  January is the month when I start to plan the garden, as most gardeners know it takes a considerable amount of planning, layout, and preparation. The overnight temperatures are not high enough to start seeds in my small greenhouse, I will wait until it is a consistent 50 degrees F. Most things in January are dormant from all appearances in our area, the worm farm residents are lethargic, all the leaves are gone from the trees, and the mulch in the garden is decomposing getting ready for planting. I struggle with where to purchase my seeds, (I welcome suggestions). I have purchased seeds and plants online with limited success, I sometimes think buying them too early in the season is not a good way to go, especially with seeds, most of the plants are not ready yet. I mention the seeds because they must be last years, perhaps as old as a full year, but does it make a difference? (Link to information on seeds)
  The plants are different, I have ordered and received plants in very good condition, every time, although they are small, that doesn't matter much to me. I do question if buying plants from a nursery in the mid-north is really the best choice, I wonder if they are bred for an entirely different type of environment, it is wetter, cooler, and lack the sunshine we have in the West. I think they are, I live in zone 6, most of the online nurseries sell their plants by the zone, if you are in zone 2 then this is what you need. My concern is how can a plant even start from a seed if the environment does not match the growing environment? I'm not sure how to determine online if a plant will survive in my area, sure there are the money back guarantees but how many of us take advantage of that? I'd venture to say not very many. I have ordered and received plants, planted them, then they die, I'm not sure what happened, but like most gardeners, I expect one or two fatalities each year, but that year they all died to arouse my suspicions. (Link to USDA page on home gardening)
  My success with starting seeds is a little shaky however, I'm not really good at starting seeds, I plan on getting better this year. I have a learning curve, not a huge one, but still, I need to refine my method. (Boy that's a good way to phrase it). I still wonder about the age of the seeds, normally I like to plant nightshades as plants, with vines, melons, and squash as seeds. An easy way to plant thousands of seeds, like with tomatoes is to feed a bunch of the vegetables to your chickens, they plant and fertilize at the same time. The overnight temperature will be a stable 50 degrees by the first week of February, that's still way too early to plant, normally the last week of March is the best.
  It's tricky, especially with vegetables such as green beans, and peas, it's been my experience if they are planted at the wrong time the hot sun will destroy them. The low humidity, especially during droughts, sucks up the water that is placed in the soil, I use organic material to hold the moisture in. I use a lot of leaves, I store them in wire "leaf towers" that I have made, I use old trash cans as well as my compost bin.

Leaves, more valuable to some people than others.

 As the level of the raised bed soil decomposes and settles down I add more leaves, straw, or in a pinch, I will use tules from the river. I use leaves in my worm farm, raised bed garden boxes, and flowers, my neighbor told me too many leaves on tomatoes will harm them, I have not experienced that. They are great for weed control and retaining moisture, as is the "Tules". Tules are like cat-o-nine tails, without the tails, they grow in the river bank and during some years there is a big die off. A die-off occurred last year, I don't know why it happens, but I took advantage of it, my grandson and I (mostly him) gathered up several wagon fulls and spread them on the garden, I used some in the worm farm as well. Their water retaining capabilities is unmatched, once they get soaked they stay wet for a long while, but like straw, they take a lifetime to decompose. I used some in the worm farm, now I have worm castings with 1/2 decomposed tule stalks of which I have to pick out of the stuff, they are like big thick straw.

Tules, notice there are no Cat tails on them. 

  I have also used the water plants, I want to call them "lily pads", but they aren't, they are some sort of plant that looks and acts like them. I placed a lot of them in the garden boxes last spring along with the Tules, they were like the reeds in their decomposition rate, in fact, some in the compost bin have yet to decompose at all and it's been about a year. If the tules, straw, and lily pads were all ground up in a chipper they would most likely work really well, but it's not worth the effort, time or expense.
  As long as I have leaves, worm castings, and time the garden will be just fine this year, I will continue to experiment with different organic materials, for instance, cacti do not work well for composting. Cacti are extremely hardy, they can appear to be completely dry, and void of life until a drop of water hits them, then they spring back, not good in a vegetable garden. Sawdust works really great, but it takes a lot of it, I prefer not to buy a lot of garden additives because it reduces the cost-effectiveness of the vegetables.
  So leaves it is, my neighbors, welcome my weekly excursions to their bare lots, ditches, and yards to load up my little trailer with the things, in fact, some think it's funny.  As far as the plants and seeds are concerned, I will go to a local nursery this year, (not a big box store) and purchase what I need. I have a neighbor who owns a nursery near us, I will buy from him, after all, if us locals don't who will? I have rambled on long enough, and it's time to conclude, Thank you for reading and sharing this blog, I will stick with the leaves this year, and most likely for a long time to come.

jacquesandkate  emergencykitsplus.com