There is abundant EXPERT advice on how to garden readily available online–everything from soil testing and preparation through when to harvest and prepare for the next season.

I am NOT and expert gardener by any means!! But I have learned a few very important lessons over the years, having tried different approaches to many gardening tasks.

#1 thing I have learned: It’s a good thing to just bite the bullet and build raised garden beds for your plants. Why? This is the #1 best way to control the type of soil and drainage of your garden. These two factors are of primary importance to the success of your garden, and are the first things that should be done. There are many tutorials and articles on how to build your raised beds—just Google it and choose the one that appeals to you and your time and cash budgets!

#2 thing I have learned: Heavily covering your empty garden beds with old newspapers, topped with cardboard and a heavy weight is a superior way to kill off any grass and weeds that sprout between fall harvest and spring planting. It does not contaminate the soil with insecticides, and it is very effective if allowed to remain completely covered for several weeks prior to preparing the soil for spring planting.

This is one of our beds, naked and barren of any delicious garden plants. However, you can see the little green weeds easily taking hold in the unprotected soil.

Here I had begun to lay out the papers, but had not removed the tomato cages, etc. Oops! Makes it a lot easier to build an effective covering if the surface is flat and empty of all cages and supports!!

This final photo shows flattened cardboard boxes, which are now covering the newspapers, weighted down with LOTS of old bricks. The newspapers alone would have done the trick, however, they are difficult to keep in place and are easily torn by our dogs running through the beds. The black plastic you can buy in rolls would work as a cover, but it doesn’t weather as well as the cardboard.

We’ll be removing the papers and cardboard in a few weeks when we are ready to start planting. I can hardly wait!!

We knew our backyard provided a lot of tree and ground cover for our little wildlife friends, and we enhanced that by providing tons of birdseed and squirrel food. For quite awhile we enjoyed identifying the various birds that visited the feeders, and it was such fun to watch them and the squirrels argue over rights to the food.

But one day in late fall while I was sitting at the kitchen table, out of the corner of my eye I detected a flash of ’something’. So I held very still and focused on the area next to the tall wooden feeder. In almost no time another flash occurred, scurrying across the ground from the heavy bushes, to the feeder, then back to the bushes. I thought I was imagining things. But, no, out the furry critter came again, and oh, my gosh, it couldn’t be . . . a RAT! But it was. And to my horror, another rat ran across the scene and into the bushes while the first one was still out gathering seeds.

I grabbed my camera so I could show Don that I really had seen the little varmints, and this is one of several short movies starring one of the rats. In all, over a period of one afternoon, we counted FIVE different rats roaming about in our hedges. The horror of it! And the little (!) guys began to venture closer and closer to the shrubs right next to the house.

All of this happened just prior to all the heavy snow we received in late December and early January. By that time we had discontinued feeding the birds in an effort to encourage the rats to move on. I haven’t seen them since the snowstorm, so maybe the absence of an easy meal did the trick. Or just maybe that HAWK that had been perching in our trees from time to time was able to have a tasty dinner. Since we had decided we had to trap them, I do hope the hawk was able to catch them. Better they become hawk food than just end up dead in our garbage.

Here is a little video proof of the rats. I never have the camera ready when the hawk shows up, but I’m still hoping to get one of him one of these days.

Apparently the current rain/snow mix is traveling in wisps and bands of clouds and the forecast calls for varying amounts, depending upon which wisp or band travels our way. Not expected until mid-afternoon, one of the wisps passed over us about 8 AM. Naturally, my camera’s memory card was full, and in the time it took to download the photos to my computer’s hard drive and erase the camera memory, the huge, fluffy flakes had morphed into tiny little specks. However, they did leave behind a pretty blanket on the ground and trees, which might last for a little while. We aren’t sad; the past two ice and snow storms have more than satisfied any cold-weather longings we might have had. We are ready to bring on Spring!!! Here’s a little peak at what we were left with this morning!

Our second icy blast in less than six weeks – some kind of record for Oklahoma! The snow is still falling, and the forecast has now been changed to the possibility of six inches before it stops. With frigid temperatures through the weekend, this snow will last awhile.

Brrr! This is an example of a photo saying a thousand words . . .

Two of our boys bring the fun inside. They have loved the cold, fluffy snow, too.

You don’t have to give a lot to be a part of the immense effort to help our brothers and sisters in Haiti who are suffering so tremendously following the disastrous earthquake there this past Tuesday.

Go to www.clintonfoundation.org/haitiearthquake to donate any amount!

Text ‘Haiti’ at 20222 to donate $10 via Clinton’s organization.

Or donate to the Red Cross, Salvation Army, or some other large organization, as they are more able than small, local organizations to get the aid to Haiti the fastest.

Watch this video to hear former President Bill Clinton talking with John Roberts on CNN about the urgency to act now to help the people of Haiti.