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.

gardenluv - believe it or not, I live in a town with no Starbucks. There is one about 40 minutes away but in a direction I never go. May be worth a trip though! Perhaps I can get brave (am shy) & phone before I go and ask. That's a good tip, thank you. Yesterday I posted in Freecycle and got one local response, it's a start! gardenweed - ours is a friendly neighborhood as well, although I don't know a lot of people here. Hopefully I'll get good at WS and be able to give away plants like yourself but can't count my seeds before they sprout. Echinacea is one I started several cultivars of. Know they are easy to germinate and am hoping for a successful start, it will keep me addicted. What is BES? You'll answer and I'll think, "oh yeah, I knew that..." token - denial is my friend. It's a highly underrated coping skill.

This plant is very easy to root. I cut about 12 inch piece off and put in a bucket of water. It will root. I use to put several in a bucket and give them away. I had to cut my last one down as it had got to be too large and was in the way. Now I have to go and ask for a cutting.

Sorry it took me so long to get online - my new job keeps sending me away. Now I'm back and busy busy busy in the garden and hopefully not getting on an airplane for a long long while (remember those reports of bumpy air landings in NYC the other week - well I was on one of those planes!! and I hate to fly). The Raleigh Spring Swap is now posted in the Exchange sub-forum (look up at the top of this page). If you find it all overwhelming just attend your first one and it will all make sense after that. I will be bringing some large potted plants that I no longer have room for. They will go in the general swap because I don't really need any special trading. I can't wait to see everybody.