My rainfall last year was 48.65 inches and I still had a very dry summer. This year our rainfall has been much less than normal (11.51 so far), but my garden has never dried out. This is because of the leaf cover that I put on it last fall. I don't mean just a couple of inches, I really piled them on. When I am ready to plant, I rake back the leaves and plant into the damp soil. After the crop is up a few inches, I push the leaves back over the ground again as mulch. The top of the leaf cover looks dry, but as I dig down, it is very damp, and the soil below is damp and filled with earth worms. The leaves were chopped, but didn't break down over winter. The lower portion that was near the soil appears to have broken down quite a lot, but the top portion did not break down much, but they did pack down. Most of my garden didn't even get tilled. I just dug a hole and planted. I also added compost in the Spring to some beds and to each tomato hole as I planted. Our county offers mulch, but the one load that I got was horrible. I think your best bet is from the tree trimmers if you can get them to leave it for you. They were cutting trees in my yard, and I asked for the mulch, but they didn't leave it. In my area they are private companies who have contracts with the electric providers. In the film, Paul says that it is important to have a mixture that was made from both leaves and wood. That makes sense to me. I use leaves every year because they are readily available, but this is the first year I have used them in this quantity. I think I have 14 trees so I have always used my leaves and sometimes a few from my close neighbors, but this year, my neighbors about a block away brought me theirs and said they would keep me in leaves every year. I don't have a years experience to see what the plants will do, but they seem to be doing great at this stage.

Hmm, I miss a day or two, I miss a LOT here, ladies! I've been running a lot, distracted, and just plain scatterbrained. Must be spring fever (at least, I'd rather blame that than a mid-life crisis, lol!). I have most of Debbya's box ready to go - I just want to do one more thing, then send it on its way. It's been fun learning about your names and their history. My first name has NOTHING to do with my family heritage - my parents just liked it. My middle name, Marie, is for my mother, Mary. My daughter's first name is Juliana, for the medieval Christian mystic Juliana of Norwich. Her middle name is Pearl, for my grandmother, who died years ago. Our son's name is Ian (Scottish for John - his grandfather, great uncle, and uncle-in-law are all John/Jon, and his father is Sean, the Irish form of John). His middle name is Joseph, for one of my favorite men in the Bible. Oh, how we debated about Ian's name! He's our first, and my mother was pestering us mightily about what names we were considering. So, we had an ugly name contest, and kept telling her all sorts of outrageous choices. Keep in mind, our last name is RUDD. So, Dudley Bud Rudd, Elmer Rudd, Evan Rudd (think Evinrude motors), Vladimir Rudd (just because), etc. etc. AND, we couldn't use any names that started with C or K, because that would make his abbreviated name C. Rudd. CRUD. That cancelled out all sorts of names we happened to like, for both kids, lol! My favorite outdoors tool is definitely bypass pruning shears. Indoors, I have to say that I really MISS my dustbuster. It recently croaked after years of faithful service, and NOW I realize just how much I used it to clean up after the kids, birds, and cats. LOLOL about the moon story! Our son stayed up late to watch part of the eclipse, and really thought it was cool. Laurel

Sour Diesel, You need to relax a bit...you practically jumped down Bradfl's throat and accused him of a political post; here's a newsflash: you can state an opinion and it DOES NOT have to be political. Also, you then give a Wikipedia link to support your theory of global consensus? LOL. That is junk-science at its finest. Bradfl has let you off the hook, but I just can't resist... Plus, according to your post...scientific consensus? Give me a break...science attempts to prove hypotheses...nothing more. So, there is a consensus on theories? Wow. To what consensus are you referring to? One doesn't exist (see below). Luckily for you I have a friend who mindlessly beats the drum of Global Warming, so I have all of these links saved in my mail folder so they are readily available for posts like yours. Plus, after the shameful public outing of the bogus data that is being used to push an economic agenda, I'm surprised that anyone would publicly support an obviously fraudulent cause: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/ NASA temperature data flawed: http://www.thestar.com/article/246027 Polar ice models incorrect (among other fun "inconvenient" facts: http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=332289 Plus, the MAJORITY of temperature sensors in use in the U.S. are incorrectly placed (and thus give false, higher readings): http://www.heartland.org/policybot/results/22203/Meteorologist_Documents_Warming_Bias_in_US_Temperature_Stations.html -FYI, I can link MANY articles that show the majority of temperature sensors in our country are incorrectly placed. And what are the global warming arguments based on? Temperature readings of course. http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/03/climate-science-gore-intelligent-technology-sutton.html http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517035,00.html -Fox picked this up from an Australian news co. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/24/hiding-evidence-of-global-cooling/ Plus, approx. 31,000 scientists (incl. over 9,000 PhD's have signed a petition that there is NO CONSENSUS that human activity causes global warming: http://www.petitionproject.org/

The extensive collection of advanced tropical foliage plants owned by the International Cordyline Society is for education and development. The Society has two major functions (1) Tropical Foliage Festival (November 2006) and the (2) Tropical Affair (January 2007) where plants are available for sale. Cordylines, bromeliads, dracaena are being promoted as drought tolerant species that will thrive in our current drought conditions. Here is a link that might be useful: The International Cordyline Society