NO-TILL GARDENING & COVER CROPPING

No-till corn planted into a cover crop of cowpeas.
 Photo by Dr. Rafig Islam, OSU

Sometimes when you start thinking about something, that "something"   triggers  a  sense of confusion before you realize that the "something" that appeared simple is actually, like most things, quite complicated.

Confusion was my   first reaction when I started to think about how  no-till gardening related to cover cropping. I know that master gardeners preach about them  and farmers regularly use cover cropping to improve aspects of soil fertility and structure; but the two ideas also seemed to be somewhat contradictory top me.  

Mowed cover crop in spring. The  decomposing green  provides a mulch layer

while the roots    improve aeration as well as add  nutrients as they decay.

The idea behind no-till is that soil fertility and structure are improved by allowing the  soil's ecology to develop naturally with little or no soil disturbance.   No-till practices allow the populations of earthworms, bacteria, nematodes and, importantly, mycorrhizal fungi to increase in the soil   establishing a balanced ecology that sustains soil fertility.   Mulch and compost are typically put on top of the soil to augment any needed nutrients and to suppress the sprouting of weed seeds     arriving via the wind or bird droppings.

Traditional plowing [a deep tillage technique], as well as a gardener's   deep spading, destroys many of these healthy soil organisms; and this means, in the case of mycorrhizal fungi,  that plants will actually miss out on obtaining the water and nutrients  these critters  can also  provide to plants.  Dormant weed seeds long buried in the ground may also be moved up to the surface and  be stimulated to sprout when  exposed to daylight.    But, there are also  positive aspects of deep tilling to keep in mind.  It does introduce oxygen into the soil  quickly and that  stimulates bacteria to breakdown available organic matter releasing some nutrients in usuable form, like nitrogen, for a new crop.  It also  expedites the warming  and drying of  soil in the spring enabling earlier planting.  Over time, however, deep tilling can lead gardeners and farmers to   become more dependent on commercial fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides to compensate for   a depleted  soil ecology.

Backyard gardeners using raised beds or containers probably unconsciously incorporate a lot of no-till practices  into their garden chores, and  many of these gardeners also  use of cover crops.    The backyard gardeners, I know, mostly limit their cover crops to winter rye or buckwheat at the end of a growing season as a way to give their soil a nitrogen shot  next season because both of these cover crops  can be lightly tilled into the soil top few inches of  soil or easily mowed/rolled down without disturbing soil ecology.

FWIW:  Legume cover crops, like cowpeas, take nitrogen (N) from the air and convert it to ammonium,  and then this new N source  potentailly becomes  available to  plants in the spring. Non-legume cover crops recycle any leftover N in the soil from a prior harvest. This N  becomes available to new  plants as the roots of the cover crop decompose. But, take note, because soil microbes usually become active before new plants,  the microbes  get first dibs on available N.  If a soil's N content is low in the spring, new plants may encounter a  deficiency of N. This can happen if spring planting gets delayed by weather - the soil is too wet, too cold etc.

So, who wouldn't want to use cover crops?

Plowing  warms  and drys  soil in the spring.
Photo: Oregon SU

Cover cropping sounds like a panacea, but it gets complicated with the need for crop rotation and, of course, by the scale and variety of farming activity.  Vegetable farmers seeking to move to no-till, whether they are following conventional or organic methods, will probably find they  need to switch from row to fixed raised beds. Creating the beds is not hard; but because farming equipment  compacts the soil between the beds from repeated tracks, a grower may need  to plant different cover crops between the beds to impove the soil's ability to resist  compaction than the cover crop needed in  the raised beds. These additonal crops add  costs.

Among the factors farmers have to think about when selecting  cover crops  are:

• What's the goal? Is it  weed suppression, erosion control, nitrogen capture, adding organic matter, breaking hardpan, reducing the risk of soil diseases or pests, etc. [For some help in choosing a cover crop, Cornell offers this  Cover Crop Decision Tool.]

• Is the cover crop a good match for the character of the field's soil? - Alfalfa, e.g., needs fertile and warm temperatures to germinate as does forage raddish that promotes the break up of clay soils, but it will also attract harlequin beetels. Each field may have unique characteristics  requiring differenent cover crops. 

• What is the cash crop? Is it a field crop like many grains or legumes or is it  planted in rows? Can the cover crop be inter-planted with the cash crop, or does it need to follow the cash crop's harvest? 

• What tilling does the cover crop require? Can the cash crop sprout through last season's cover crop residue? Will the cover crop clog a seeder if its residue is left on top of the soil? 

• Will the cover crop's growth cycle be compatible with that of  the cash crop's? Will it be necessary to use a herbicide to clear the field for planting in order to harvest the cash crop in time for market or to prevent the cover crop from reseeding and becoming a weed. 

• How does crop rotation affect cover crop selection from year to year? 

Spiker aerator and tractor for reduced tillage.
A backyard gardener just needs a broad tooth fork.

Many, if not most, American farmers do    use  a mix of lite-tilling strategies, collectively called reduced tillage, usually in order to limit erosion and ideally  to minimize soil disturbance.  A small but increasing number of farmers are  also introducing  or expanding  no-till  practices into their tillage repertoire.

Farmers starting the move to no-till unfortunately frequently have to expect  yields  from these fields, especially for field crops like corn, to  decline until natural soil fertility is restored. This can be  a 7 - 9 year process   unless implementation is carefully managed -- that's a long time with a reduced income from a field until you start to see increased yields and lower costs!  Along with making such a  long term  commitment, no-till strategies need to  be tailored  for each  each field.

Cover cropping is an important component of no-till, but definitely a complicating factor.  [If you are interested in how cover crops can be employed  during  conversion to no-till to speed up the process, take a look at Ohio State University's Factsheet on Using Cover Crops to Convert to No-till.]

OSU  found that  growers can reduce the time to restore the soil's natural fertility, at least for some crops, to as little as only 2 - 3 years - a much more attractive proposition -- by employing a continuous living cover strategy, i.e.    using cover crops to eliminate/reduce the time that fields are devoid of plants. The benefits of  leaving plant material on top of the soil and roots  left undisturbed in ground over the winter months substantially promote restoration of soil health and reduce nutrient loss from erosion and runoff.  

Well, that's enough for now, I know that I have barely tilled the surface regarding  cover crops and no-till.

And remember

"There's no limit on how complicated things can get on account of one thing 

always leads to another." - E. B. White

Garden Preparation - February

Somedays it may be hard to think about gardening.

T'is February, a month high in suicides, but for gardeners, a time to think about the greener days coming.

For the ambitious backyard gardener, February can be the time to

• start such vegetables as celery, leeks, cabbages, cauliflower under lights;

• order seeds, if you haven't already succumbed to the urge; and

• spend a little time thinking about the sustainability of your garden.

If you are looking for more gardening advice about what to do in February, either search this blog using the term "February" for last year's post or click on the link labeled Root Concerns, the Rensselaer County Extension's newsletter,  located on this display's right side for its 2019 suggestions. Otherwise,  just continue reading here.

Simple Crop Rotation Plan

Rotation in my small garden I find is a challenge every year.  My plots are not divided evenly among the plants I decide to grow. Tomatoes always seem to take up about a 1/3 of my space; and, of course,  I like to include a few peppers and  eggplants.  Because these vegetables  are related to tomatoes, just rotating them in my small space does not necessarily do as much as it  might to minimize the risks of some pests or  diseases such as verticulum wilt (VW). Because VW can stay active in soil for 10 - 15 years, crop rotation in small gardens actually provides little protection against it.  That said, I do try to follow the scheme like the one listed below, but I also know that I have to compensate for my space constraints by putting more focus on soil building by rigorously adding  compost  and mulch  to maintain soil health, selecting varieties that are resistant to certain diseases (like VW) and experimenting with growing some plants, like eggplants, in containers filled with new  soil - I usually bury these pots in the ground to reduce the risks of their overheating and drying out. 

A simple crop rotation plan like the one listed below and followed over four years for common vegetables with plants from each group grown in a given garden space each year looks something like this:

                                Year 1:  Potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers

                                Year 2: Carrots and other root veggies, lettuces, spinach

                                Year 3: Cabbage family (Brussels sprouts, cauliflower etc.)

                                Year 4: Onions, garlic, leeks, legumes (beans, peas)

Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living - My Soapbox Topic for February

Cornell U. Botanical Garden - Sustainably beautiful.

Now, in line with the effort to think about  gardening during February, let's touch upon the concept of sustainable gardening.

The phrase simply identifies  a collection of practices with the goal that strives to produce better harvests both now and into the future by utilizing techniques  that are in harmony with local environments.  

Actually, I think all backyard gardeners   want to have sustainable gardens - they do not intentionally grow vegetables in ways that  exhausts the soil to the point that even weeds fail to thrive.  All gardeners realize that their next  growing season  requires planning and preparation during  the current  season.

Crop rotation, briefly mentioned above,  happens to be  one of the characteristics of sustainable  gardening.  The other main characteristics of sustainable gardening include:

• Minimizing negative environmental impacts: e.g. by avoiding or rarely using insecticides or pesticides;

• Working to  improve soil fertility: e.g. by adding compost and natural fertilizers to promote soil health and to  reduce reliance on commercial fertilizers. This not only saves money, but also may reduce carbon emissions by lowering the demand for those bags of 5-10-5;

• Promoting conservation and biological diversity:  e.g. by  mulching,  planting diverse crops that attract both pollinators and beneficial nemodotes and conserving water;

• Using community and local resources: e.g. by composting your own plant wastes and using neighborhood resources such as raked leaves or grass clippings (free of pesticides, of course) to recycle the nutrients locally; and most importantly...

• LEARNING & THINKING about  your gardening skills: e.g.  by finding out about best practices. Check the Internet  for your county's Cooperative Extension Service or (gasp)  look for a book at the public library about growing vegetables.

These goals also apply to gardeners using containers   In fact,   container gardeners actually are  employing many sustainable techniques automatically, e.g. they already  have little need for insecticides and they probably don't over water, but passing on their sustainable containers to  heirs is probably (still) uncommon. By choosing organic  soils and fertilizers to replenish container soils  and choosing disease resistant plant varieties container gardeners  also reduce demand for commercially produced products.  Their  small harvests from containers even count as using local resources; and importantly, their gardening activity conveys to friends and relations an awareness about sustainable efforts.  In this regard  both container and backyard gardeners should be mindful of their  roles, albeit seemingly small, in promoting sustainable methods and raising awareness about the need to recognize human society's dependence upon the natural environment.

For people without gardens, and that is most people in our society, if they are lucky enough to have access  to organic and/or locally grown vegetables, they can support those growers  by purchasing even a little of that produce.  If they do not easily have access to these sources as affordable options, then the most important thing they can do for themselves and for the planet is to simply buy a little bit less convenience or fast food - probably something that everyone should be doing.

In our society many small decisions about food choice by consumers eventually can have  impacts, so the choices of non-gardeners may be the most important in improving sustainable agricultural and eventually influencing better sustainable lifestyles.


And remember:

"Gardeners, I think, dream bigger dreams than emperors." - Mary Cantwell

Microgreens vs Kale?

I  recently listened to a couple of Rensselaer County farmers talk about the challenges they face anticipating the whimsical buying habits of their farm stand customers (i.e. food eaters) from one year to the next.  Both said that they had learned only to add new varieties or to expand existing crops very, very judiciously because the public generally did not  remember what it had asked the farmers to grow from one year to the next. 

As part of that conversation one  the farmers also commented  that he's  noticed a recent fall off in the demand for kale - the wonder veggie    constantly  promoted by foodie media  since  perhaps Gutenberg's invention -  along with what seems to be an  exponentially expanding public craving for microgreens. He admitted that he's now   starting  to wonder if he should cut back a little on kale and expand his microgreens, but he is not yet ready to alter his plans for the coming year. The farmer didn't speculate on the reasons for the perceived  changes in demand, so let's now attempt sp,e speculation  of our own.

The Local Outlook  

Farmers' markets focus on fresh foods, not necessarily convenience.

The increasing demand for microgreens as well as  the  probable persevering attraction of kale, I think,      reflects the ongoing demographic trends of  Renssealer County as well as the rest of the Capital District.  Suburban areas are still sprawling and   apartment living in towns and cities is noticeably increasing. The folks making these transitions  seem to be either young professionals or recent retirees. Both groups are educated and have stable incomes; and  both  share a heightened interest in at least  attempting to follow healthier eating habits. The ever busy lifestyles of these new suburbanites and townies also mean that  convenience and efficiency in  their food choices are valued whether they are in dining in or dining out.   Microgreens fit nicely into these parameters.  Unlike kale, preparation time for microgreens is minimal because it is usually  devoured raw - the smallest microgreens are sprinkled into or onto something, and the larger sizes are ready to go salad mixes.  There is, simply,  no waste left after you clean your plate!

The pattern matches that of what a UCLA research group found in 2014 after tracking how 32 families used the rooms in their houses. These home owners used the kitchen and an adjourning open dining area the most, but they were hardly ever in those rooms together at the same time.   Few sit  down meals were prepared; it was mostly a grab, eat  and go environment.  I suspect a similar pattern might  be true for new the apartment dwellers who discover how easy it is to catch a meal from a nearby deli or pub.  The implication  for farmers (easy, of course, to say) is that they need to continue to focus on establishing supply relationships with restaurants, food cart vendors, delis etc as the principle way to plan for expanding their crops.  Direct selling via roadside stands and farmers' markets probably will  increase also as some  people shift to the suburbs, but  will probably only  provide    incremental increases in roadside retail sales. The same situation  probably holds true for the larger local farmers' markets - more people seem to becoming to these venues, but food vendors and distillers seem to be increasing in number faster  than either the  number or size of farm stalls. 

Microgreens

Microgreens  cover a wide range of plants, typically those from the brassica (the mustard family  that includes cabbages, broccoli etc.) and the lactuca family (lettuces), but really any young plant that appeals to someone's taste buds [e.g. cress, sorrel, purslane etc.] can be fitted to the label.

The current high interest in microgreens may stem from the appearance of a 2012 research article  in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that reported finding  notably higher concentrations of nutrients in these young plants  compared with their mature counterparts.  In a few cases nutrient levels  as much as 40 times higher  were discovered!  The result is that microgreens now seem to flood farmers' markets  and appear  to take up more pages in seed catalogs than tomatoes!

For farmers, the principle attraction of microgreens is their short time to harvest: typically 20 - 40 days  easily allowing for multiple staggered  plantings resulting in almost continuous harvesting and sales.  They can be grown either in greenhouses or outdoors in raised beds within or without tunnels, and they grow at cool temperatures.  In our area that means growers can easily produce them year round.

Their planting density, however, does make them subject to   diseases such as damping off and phytothera; and  their seed and labor costs are high compared with many field crops. Despite these drawbacks, overall production costs are less than the costs associated with such farm equipment such as tractors etc. A farmer devoting 60 sq ft of greenhouse space and using a 4 rack system with plantings staged  for  two week harvesting will produce about 50 lbs of microgreens over the course of a year.  With  microgreens retailing for around $28/lb  at local farmers' markets, a farmer potentially can earn a steady return from a small amount of space.

For backyard gardeners, with small greenhouses or grow lights in the cellar,  microgreens  also are  a  tempting crop. The yields may seem small, as I will personally attest, but the harvest is satisfying for the required effort.  Microgreens are harvested when between 2" and  4" high, and that means that a common 10" x 20" seeding tray may yield between 5 - 6 oz. of microgreens - enough for a backyard gardener in the winter to enjoy a couple of  fresh salads with someone special occasionally.  A fancy, 4  rack set up with grow lights for the well-heeled home gardener  can easily cost $1,000+ [the equivalent of buying 35+ pounds of microgreens retail]. A single tray of microgreens on a window sill is clearly a cheaper alternative, but the fugal grower is  more likely to experience some leggy plants and uneven growth despite  her/his  best efforts. 

Kale

According to webMD kale is actually more popular than ever and well deserving of its reputation as a super food. If you need convincing of  its nutritional value beyond that implied by its unadulterated taste when eaten raw, look no further than this chart from the World's Healthiest Food Organization.  It  seems to me, however, that eating kale clearly is  superior to taking a spectrum supplements from vitamin bottles.  Kale is, after all, the forage  of choice for  many ruminants when they can get it.

When  I was growing up, I never heard of kale; but my family was not particularly adventurous when it came to foods. Meat and potatoes was our norm for almost every dinner. Now, however, having acquired a taste for kale,   I  add it joyfully  into omlets, soups, stews and use it  sautéed as a side dish.  These all do entail cooking kale - an aspect that perhaps dissuaded my mother from adding it as another  dish to our menu...

For both farmers and backyard gardeners growing kale is relatively easy and economical.  A first harvest is ready usually within 60 - 75 days, and a second planting started during mid summer will yield its leaves through December or longer. In large gardens kale is grown  outdoors in rows  36" apart with plants spaced at 12" - 18."  For small backyard gardens if you just want to have a few kale leaves at a time, then a single plant might suffice. You can plant it in late spring and pick leaves from mid-summer to New Years. Kale  is  relatively disease resistant and is not especially appealing to most insects.   Cabbage moths may be attracted to it, but casual observations in my own garden indicate that even these moths prefer regular cabbages and broccoli if given a choice.  Over the course of a growing season a single kale plant such as Winterbor (a curly leaf variety) or Tuscano (a straighter  curled leaf type) will produce between 4 - 6 lbs of leaves - usually enough to satiate one adult kale convert.  

And remember...

What happens when you buy too many greens?  You tip the skales...

Garden Preparation - January

This garden blog has completed  its first full year. So far, so good! As it's the start of a new year and another month, it is also time to start nagging anew about gardening chores. So while you still may be recovering from the holiday stupors, here are a few things  to start thinking about...

Concord grapes waiting to be pruned.

• Firstly, get outside and get some fresh air. Because there is not much snow cover (as I write this post,  start pruning those grape vines and fruit trees while it's easy.  If you are uneasy with pruning, checkout this quick guide for fruits and berries produced by the Chemung County's Extension Service.

• Inventory your  seeds  - Look inside last year's packets.  Are there enough left to use? If your answer is "yes," then maybe  you should think about their  viability.  The viability of  different vegetable seeds varies; but for practical purposes, you should toss seeds that are three or more years old. [Although seeds of the cabbage (cruciferae) family remain viable for more than just a couple of years, the percentage of them that will sprout  does decline steadily each year.] You can do a simple seed viabliltiy test by sprinkling a few seeds onto a wet paper towel, fold the towel over the seeds, keep it moist and then count the number of seeds that eventually sprout.   If the number of sprouting seeds is above 80%, it is probably reasonable to use the seeds this year, but expect to have a few gaps in your rows.     

• Note: If you used pelletized seeds last year, toss them.  Pelletized seeds do not remain viable for long because they are frequently slightly pre-moistened to initiate  growth.  If not used promptly  the seeds  exhaust their stored energy trying to start  the sprout cycle trapped inside surrounding coating.

• To really get a head start on the season, clear off the cellar table, fill your RECENTLY CLEANED pots with starter mix, and plant parsley, thyme, leek, and onion seed now.

• Be frugal...You don't have to blow your budget if you start  thinking about repurposing stuff.  Use egg cartons  for planting plugs, ,yogurt cups for pots, aluminum baking or other  trays from to catch the water seeping from drainage holes. Save  plastic milk jugs to use as  plant tents.  

Vegetable Yields

I have observed that some new gardeners  think about how many different vegetables they can grow but soon scale down their hopes  after recognizing that they don't have room for all their desires.   They  then frequently don't think about how much the vegetables they decide to plant  will actually yield.  Although Mel Bartholomew's All New Square Foot Gardening: The Revolutionary Way to Grow More in Less Space (2013)  effectively covers how many plants can be squeezed into tight spaces, I think it's a little light on actual yields. A carrot produces one carrot, but not many gardeners know the quantity of green beans that a bush bean will yield. This chart from a Washington State University's  Extension Service publication  succinctly covers all the common veggies for backyard growers -- I'll assume that the average bear can scale a 10 ft row to a particular garden situation... The columns on the right side of the table pertaining to adult consumption I think may be somewhat problematical. Of course, many of us don't always know what we're eating -- however, the 50 lbs of corn consumption must, I suppose,  include corn syrup and/or corn flakes...

Vegetable	Plants per 10-ft Row	Production per 10-ft Row	Average Pounds Consumed per Adult per Year
			Fresh	Processed	Total
Asparagus	10	5-8 lbs	10	10	20
Bean, Green	35	6-8 lbs	15	25	40
Beet	50	10-12 lbs	3	4	7
Broccoli	10	10-12 lbs	5	6	11
Brussels Sprout	10	6-8 lbs	3	0	3
Cabbage	8	10-15 lbs	10	10	20
Carrot	60-80	12 lbs	8	8	16
Cauliflower	9	8-10 lbs	6	9	15
Celery	20	15 lbs	5	0	5
Chard, Swiss	20	30 lbs	3	5	8
Corn, Sweet	20	3 doz ears	17	33	50
Cucumber	5	2-3 doz	6	12	18
Eggplant	5	15 eggplants	2	3	5
Kohlrabi	30	7-8 lbs	4	2	6
Lettuce, Head	10	10 lbs	5	0	5
Lettuce, Leaf	30-60	5 lbs	5	0	5
Muskmelon (Cantaloupe)	3	10-15 melons	5	0	5
Onion, Bulb	40	10 lbs	10	0	10
Onion, Green	60-80	2 lbs	2	0	2
Parsnip	40	10-15 lbs	5	0	5
Pea	60-100	10-12 lbs	5	8	13
Pepper	6	20 lbs	3	7	10
Potato	10	20 lbs	70	0	70
Pumpkin	3	10 pumpkins	10	10	20
Radish	100-120	3 lbs	1	0	1
Rhubarb	3-4	15-20 lbs	5	5	10
Spinach	30-40	5 lbs	3	5	8
Squash, Summer	3	25 lbs	7	10	17
Squash, Winter	2	20-30 lbs	20	20	40
Tomato	8	30-50 lbs	35	50	85
Turnip	30-40	20 lbs	3	0	3
Watermelon	3	6-12 melons	10	0	10

Good News For Bees, Bad News For Insects 

Robotic pollen collector   by Eljiro Miyako

During the past couple of weeks I've seen both good news and bad news stories in the New York Times about our insect friends. A few scientists are experimenting with a way to inoculate (or, in this case, expose)  honey bees with antiviral compounds derived from the common wood conk mushroom as a protection against many of the diseases spread by the mite, Varoa destructor.  If these findings hold up, gardeners soon may be setting up bee feeder/innoculation stations in their backyards to help our pollinating partners. 

On the negative side, there is a some research now suggesting that declining insect populations might   reflect the effects of rising global temperatures on male insect fertility.  Combined with the toll of insecticides, the engineers and scientists working on these micro-mechanical pollinators should start working double shifts!  If nothing else, the devices may be needed by the first colonists to Mars.

Bird Visitors to Winter Gardens

A few days ago a friend who lives in northern Rensselaer County mentioned  that he's noticed different kinds of birds now are showing up in and around his garden, and he was wondering what he might be seeing.  So, you can blame him for inspiring  this post.

Snowy Owl - Common visitor from the North

It is common for some birds from more northern ranges to move just a little south into our neck of the woods for at least part of the winter. Not all species undertake long migrations, and local newspapers bring attention to these visitors by  posting pictures from their readers of the larger species - snowy owls, snow geese etc.  Pine Siskins, Snow Buntings and  various Grosbeaks usually don't get as much attention because they tend to hangout   in secluded woody or shrubby areas.

Although gardeners living in the suburbs and rural areas will probably see more species, even in my urban backyard setting I have occasionally seen Lapland Longspurs and Cedar Waxwings. A few backyard gardeners might even be surprized to learn that some  of our regular Rensselaer County feathery friends such as Bluebirds, Gold Finches and Robins actually  are  wintering over in sheltered areas all around us.  

If you are wondering about what kind of birds are being seen in the Capital District, the best website may be the one maintained by the Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club. Many club members post their daily sightings year round, and anyone can take a look. On the club's homepage look for the heading, HMBirds, and click on the link labeled, To see the latest sightings. 

For gardeners who feel they could use help  with identifying birds,  Cornell's Laboratory of Ornithology  offers the free app, Merlin, for  smartphones or tablets.  This app guides users in selecting  important identifying characteristics and then offers suggestions with photos of the bird(s)   fitting that criteria.  Merlin covers about 3,000 species in North America; and once you confirm what you are seeing on the app, the sighting data  enters  the lab's database that compiles information about species ranges and migration patterns. - I never go for a walk without Merlin!

For  gardeners who might be looking for something more to do when not in the garden or while just waiting for the new seed catalogs to arrive, there is also   Cornell Lab's website, eBird.org. In addition to identifying birds, you can a find out about current research, create a lifelist of personal sightings, participate in a citizen science program by entering your daily sightings of even common birds into the Lab's  database, and  monitor ongoing migratory movements.

Another option is the Audobon Society's North American Bird Guide available through its website as well as via a mobile app.  From the website look for a drop down menu labeled, Birds. You can limit your searches to a region, but you do have to know a little something about the character of the bird you are attempting to identify.  The society's webpage  also offers extensive information about environmental and political developments impacting birds. And, in case you haven't heard of it or have been silently ruminating  about it, there is still time to get involved the Audobon Society's 119th Christmas Bird Count this year.

For those gardeners with more  traditional print-based propensities, there are a slew of handbooks for identifying birds. The leading ones continue to be the guides authored by Roger Tory Peterson, Donald & Lillian  Stokes (of NH) and David Allen Sibley. These authors also offer various web resources.  All   emphasize   educational topics  for both beginning and experienced birders.  Stokes offers an excellent birding blog; Peterson, in additionl to promoting his many publications,  offers podcasts, and Sibley seems to  focussing on developing  online  tutorials.

And remember:

"I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries,

and very frankly give them fruit for their songs." - Joseph Addison, Essayist

Garden Preparation - December

Oh... No... December! For those of us without green houses, almost all our outside gardening work  in Rensselaer County, NY is past.  I still do have some curly leaf kale persisting in the garden, but that's all.  My other plants have succumbed to killing frosts. However, if you were conscientious last month and actually covered your carrots, beets and parsnips with a deep layer of straw, you may still may be harvesting. I hope you are.

In the mean time while you are waiting for next season's seed catalogs to start arriving in the mail, here are a few gardening related items you might consider doing to exercise that green thumb.

Culinary herbs

• Start a few culinary herbs indoors: The basic ones include chives, parsley, rosemary, thyme and basil. If you have space there is also oregano, cilantro, mint and lemon balm.  And, if you have even more space, you might want to try bay laurel (aka bay leaf) - actually a shrub that will work in a container.

• If you garden soil is still not frozen, check your carrots, and other root veggies. If they look alive, there is still time either to mulch them for later harvesting or you can simply dig them for storage indoors. If mulching, be sure to add a sheet of  plastic blanket over the mulch to help insulate the veggies from freezing.

• Don't wait any longer. Writing holiday cards can wait and get a jump on an early New Year's Resolution. Start that garden diary while you still remember a little bit of what you planted and how it did this year. You might even enter a note about what you want to do different next year.

And remember:

"The garden season officially begins January 1st and ends December 31." - Marie Huston, gardener and artist