Peter- Wow. Sounds like you're getting into my head. Had some questions a while back about whether people only tended/tilled their rows, or tended/tilled their entire garden. I was thinking that it could be more cost/labor effective if you only tended rows year after year and let the aisles kind of be... with some sort of cover crop. Sounds like it can be done. I'm very interested in that. Is the white clover you mention, "dutch white clover"? When it creeps, will I be able to bring it under control when I till as normal for my fall/winter garden, and my spring/summer garden, or will I need to do additional spading/ edging of some sort then, and throughout the growing season? Can I plant it now, along with my winter garden? The book sounds interesting. I'm going to pick up a copy. Thanks for the clarification on the fact that, yes, I can grow hairy vetch and cereal rye now and still have organic matter to till in, in the early spring. Great news for me. I'm being thick headed here, but I'm still not understanding how the cereal rye affects seeds/seedlings. You say "cereal rye will suppress small seeded vegetables, but will not kill healthy transplants". Do you mean that ANY healthy transplant will not be harmed, and that only small seeds sown in place may have issues? Or do you mean by "small seeded vegetables", even transplants that are grown from small seeds can be affected? No till eh? I might be interested and your experiment suggestion is certainly something I'd be interested in trying. Do you think that even with the poor soil conditions that I have currently, it would be worth experimenting with that right now? Or, as I'm thinking maybe better to bring up my organic matter by tilling in pine bark fines, bring up my potassium levels with sulfate of potash (currently very low), add alfalfa meal to supply nitrogen needs, plant the garden, mulch with either shredded leaves or straw or hay.... Then next season try the no till part of the equation? Frankly, I'm just a little unsure about how the whole no till thing is going to work for me. Don't know a whole lot about it, but kind of thinking it might be better to do "next phase" because my soil is so poor. Please feel free to argue this to me, offer suggestions for no till on poor soil conditions viability. Do you (or anyone reading this) have a good source for cover crop seed? I was going to purchase from Johnny's selected seeds, but they are out of some of the varieties I was interested in.

I will be moving my tree in and out late winter/spring as I did last year. I placed a plastic bag over my trees before moving then so it would take a half hour for the are temperature on the leaves to change. I was afraid that an instant temperature drop would cause leaf drop or sickness. I have 2 indoor trees of which one weighs 200 pounds. it will be up potted and planted in ground against the south wall of my basement on the north side of the greenhouse this February/March. My 5 gallon tree will go in and out. The in and out process worked well for me last year. 6b Steve

It's a Metasequoia. They are not quite so rare anymore. Modern, North American range is now from coastal Maine to probably North Florida. One of my favorite trees..., bought it mail-order maybe a decade ago and now we can build a tree house in it. Pic below is from a November several years ago. P.S., My goal in life is to reestablish the botanic, Jurassic endowment of the North American continent before it went extinct here. I guess we all need goals.

Thanks for the ID! I'll keep an eye on it in the fall since the net says it has fabulous fall color.