How much of a leaf cover do you need for that? I don't really know. This is the first time I am planting in the front yard woods, after picking up sticks and limbs, trimming up some trees, pulling up tree seedlings, pulling up 'some' vines, and digging out lots and lots of May Apples, and raking aside all the leaf cover. Stringing the rows and doing the actual planting is the easiest part of the whole planting experience. I'd say the leaf cover is at least 6" or so. I kept watching the weatherunderground on the computer all day, hoping it would get warm. Even though it wasn't warm at 4 PM (was just 34 though it was sunny) I headed out to get a few planted. Surprisingly, I wasn't cold, the soil was wet, but not clumpy, my hands didn't get cold, and I managed to plant 15 little bags, 47 total bulbs. so all those from the front yard (city tree) went to the city for composting. How I wish I had trees that weren't all in the woods or at the edge of the woods. All the leaves at the edges of the yard are full of sticks and twigs. I used to sometimes go to friend's houses and do their leaves, just to get to bring them all home for the veggie garden. I've got this wonderful leaf shredder that reduces them 13 to 1, turning leaves into what I call brown gold. I think the little willow leaves should be fine. Last year I remember "discovering" that the open areas were frozen solid while those with some cover were not. I might be able to exploit that some year if I knew what to aim for. How deep? I wonder if you couldn't just cover an area with either clear plastic or black plastic to keep the warm in and the freezing cold out, thus lengthening the planting season so you could get in on the late sales, like from B and B's.

you water.... WHEN THE TREE NEEDS WATER .... too much.. is just as bad as too little .... THE ONLY WAY TO KNOW ... in your soil.. in your garden.. is for you to INSERT YOUR FINGER.. and find out if the soil.. UNDER PROPER MULCH is hot or dry .... if it is dry.. water it .. deeply.. so it gets thru the whole root system .... dig a small hole.. to find out if you are actually getting water down where you planted the roots .... if it is hot .. it will be dry tomorrow ... as one of the purposes of the mulch.. is to keep the soil cooler .... over-watering.. in soil that does not drain properly ... will kill a tree faster than under-watering.. IMHO .... in my mineral sand.. i could dig a hole the size of a 5 gal bucket.. and barely get it filled as the water would drain away.. and when the soil was finally saturated enough to fill the hole.. once i turn off the water.. it will be gone within minutes.. that is the type of drainage most trees like... and i still ONLY water newly planted trees... deeply.. once every two weeks ... the thought that any tree needs PROPER watering more than once a week.. is questionable .. unless you are not doing it properly .... good luck ken ps: forget about the first one.. it was a tree 'tard.. it has no relevance to this one.. except in how you might be watering it .... or how you planted it.... etc ...

BlueRibbonTomatoes For rare and delicious heirloom tomato seed sample packs and others. My friend Maria who lives here in Kentucky grows Heirloom Tomatoes and sells her wonderful collection of seed on E-Bay. I would never buy seed from someone I didn't know but I assure you that you would be doing yourself a favor by looking at her special sale of 20 varieties(sample size) seed for $9.99. Scroll down for sample varieties. She has other Kentucky Heirloom varieties, some of which I shared with her. This is a perfect amount of seed for folks who want to grow several varieties and don't need a full packet of seed. Gary Millwood Louisville, Kentucky BlueRibbonTomatoes For rare and delicious Kentucky heirloom tomato seeds, visit BlueRibbonTomatoes below --- __________________ Every blade of grass, each leaf, each separate floret and petal, is an inscription of hope ... Richard Jefferies -- June 1883 Here is a link that might be useful: BlueRibbonTomatoes

"tulip tree" is a common name.......therefore, it is nothing official and can be applied to anything one cares to :-) It is most often applied to Lirodendron tulipifera but many also call magnolias 'tulip trees'. Magnolia liliiflora is commonly referred to as 'tulip magnolia' due to the shape of the flowers but common usage has expanded that appellation. The tree in the last photo IS a magnolia but difficult to determine exactly what kind. As to the OP's question, a magnolia putting out flowers in the middle of winter in a zone 6 climate regardless of temperatures would be highly unusual. Even in very mild winter climates, this is uncommon. And without any photo, it's impossible to know what sort of tree they may be referring to. Just an aside, I responded to the second post earlier......but then the second post disappeared!! So I deleted my previous comment (essentially what I wrote above) as there was no context for it. Weird!!