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.

I didn't think a DTV remote had to be programmed, and Mikie, it didn't come with a manual to "learn that secret". Thanks for the info, I love the back light on this one so I will see if I can get it going. I don't want to spend the money for a new one when I can get a working used one for cheaps. This will be the 3rd one I have bought off of eBay over 13 years, and have never had a problem, they always worked immediately.

I checked back here to post a RANT, and discovered it's already here! Thanks jerrod6! Misery loves company. Here's my story of fun and games with BOTH providers. We supposedly had the DirecTV HD DVR and HD Receiver (and new dish) all set to go last month. I paid $299 for the equipment and was told I'd hear from an installer. Nobody called, so I called DirecTV again. After taking a telephone tour of the USA for an hour, I was given a date and told the installer would phone to confirm. You guessed it; no call. I called DirecTV again for another tour of the country -- five cities, as I recall, having to recite my story over and over to each new contact. Another date was set. This time I asked for the phone number of the installer. Of course I didn't hear from anyone and when I dialed the installer's number I got a recording: We no longer service the Chicagoland area. Another call to DirecTV to learn that there is no record of my order or of a date to install anything, anytime. But they will "look into it" and call me. Now Mother Nature steps into the picture. We have a freak snowstorm (8 inches all at once) and the following week is freakishly cold. I call DirecTV and ask them to cancel the upgrade and credit my account. I don't see anyone climbing our roof in this weather. An hour after I cancel, DirecTV calls back and is ready to set a date for install in two days. Having finally wised up to their games I repeat: CANCEL THE ORDER AND CREDIT MY ACCOUNT! And...I call Comcast. Comcast takes my order and sets a date for installation. The installer shows up *early*, but says he only has the HD DVR and a "regular" receiver. (Read on to see if you think he was lying.) Another date is set, a week later. Yesterday another Comcast guy arrives. He puzzles why the first guy didn't complete the installation. We look at the first guy's order sheet and the second guy's sheet; they are identical. Hmmm. Well, then second guy goes out to find the Comcast connection box. THERE IS NONE! Our next door neighbors have Comcast. Comcast has sent two techs out to do an install. BUT... The nearest box is down the street. We will need "Dig and Drill" to lay a line from the box to our house. The second guy assures me they'll do it next week and I should hear from scheduling "tomorrow". I call Comcast after he leaves, wanting to confirm that this will actually happen and am told that all "Dig and Drill" has been suspended in our area...until April. I can't guess how much time I have now wasted on this project between the hours waiting for installers to show up and hours on the phone tapping responses to prompts that don't address my situation. (And how much has this cost each of these companies?!) We are giving this another try. I called DirecTV again. They will come here January 4 and install the HD Receiver/HD DVR box -- and new dish 30 feet up on our 10/12 pitch roof. HAAAAAAAAH-HAAAAAAAAHh-HAAAAAAAAAAH! Yeah, sure they will. Can't you see the techs volunteering for THIS order? (to be continued) -- if I'm still alive after Jan. 4

We've been running about 70% of our average monthly rainfall (average since we started keeping rain records for the garden in 2004). One benefit of keeping the rain records is putting it all in perspective - e.g. rainfall is very variable from year to year here - for instance we had 82mm. in June, compared to 119mm last year and 89mm for the 2004-2020 average. But the lowest rain amount we had in June was 43mm in 2016! We water new plantings and things in pots, but other than that, things are expected to survive on their own with natural rainfall! We did use soaker hoses in the first few years when we started the garden but, by 2004 when we started keeping the rain records, we had largely stopped using them and they have long since been removed or abandoned. It's tough coping with dry periods and we do sometimes water (by 'flooding' a dry area with the hose running gently in the bed) if somewhere is looking very stressed. Plants are generally tougher than we feared!