I have a couple of piles of leaves breaking down on top of the turf in the front yard where I'm going to be doing some digging soon. The area where the new garden will go doesn't have anything going on there except a couple of plants that I need to move before I get started. I have an immense pile of compost in the back yard, most of which is ready to go now. I will be turning over part of it and using the material that has been buried the longest. I have various soil amendments ready to go to add to the mix, but first have to get out the Bermuda. Moon cycles sound too benign for this stuff--nuclear explosions might eradicate it! (Talk about irradiating your food supply!)

John, I remember well the saga of your lawn mower. I need to get mine worked on soon (it isn't a riding mower, it is a self-propelled standard variety). The last couple of weeks of the mowing season it took on an alarmingly loud clunking noise. The kind that sounds like it's getting ready to throw the blade free or something equally catastrophic. No more mowing with this baby until it gets a clean bill of health.

Janie, I'm glad you mentioned those tillers by name. I compared the Honda and the Mantis machines when I started looking a couple of weeks ago. My neighbors have a Honda and they brought it down to turn over a front bed for that same neighbor across the street. In a bed already in production, it worked great. I think it would burn up the motor to try breaking new ground with it.

Meanwhile, as we talk about gardening, MMario might do well on this snow day to get out his cultivator to break through a few feet of packed snow and ice to clear paths around his house.

SRS