The 2013 Farmer's Almanac offered a couple of tidbits to enhance our chances for success in gardening. One is to soak seeds in water before planting them. The other is that rabbit food pellets, which essentially consist of dried alfalfa, are an excellent, natural way to add nutrients to your soil. Just scatter on the surface, and add water.

It's February 16, and it might freeze tonight here in Lafayette, Louisiana. I brought in the potted aloe vera and the bougainvillea. Leaves are now lightly mounded at the bases of the younger trees. Even if it does drop to freezing, it shouldn't be that cold for more than an hour or two.

There are areas of the yard that are very tidy, swept clean of leaves and debris by maintenance crews. There are areas of the yard that are carpeted with leaves and twigs. I've been curious to see how the different surface conditions affect the soil and the flora and fauna. I must admit that I'm not an unbiased observer here. Having spent my youth here in the 60s, I remember the azaleas that were seldom trimmed which developed into huge sensual mounds of bright blooms. It wasn't unheard of for trees to be pruned maybe once every ten years. Their branches bowed low. Every tree was a world of its own. Kids clambered along them, and looked inside bird nests, or shook the limbs to increase the release of pecans in the fall. Ivies grew at the bases of some. Dead or broken branches were shed naturally, and the half-decayed part still attached to the tree might support woodpeckers and mockingbirds in search of bugs burrowed in the bark. There was fungal growth, and a trail of black ants could almost always be found marching up and down the trunk. You might find a beehive or a squirrels nest. In the lichens at the base of the tree, assorted plants, some with tiny blooms, flourished. Small jungles thrived secretively, tangled along fence lines where no one had bothered to take out the hand-powered clippers for awhile.

Over the decades since the 60s, we've become far more efficient taking care of our yards. Lawn maintenance people have powerful mowers, blowers, and other gas-powered equipment. Unlike when hiring the high school kid down the street, or with the old gardeners for hire who showed up with spades and rakes, these services are supplied by companies that have workers expecting regular salaries. Instead of of coming now and again, they show up on a schedule. And, since they have all this equipment, each time they show up, they find ways to use the equipment. They cut off tree limbs before they become hazards, and take away each leaf and loose twig they can find. Trees that are pruned a couple of times a month gradually become like bandits with their hands up. The grass is given a military haircut, short and uniform. However, in this era where heat, drought, and other factors have wrought a great toll on birds and insects, life in the handsome tidy parts of the yard is limited. Just as interrelationships become established, they are abruptly disturbed or demolished in the wind and thunder of a leaf blower.

Parts of the yard left untouched for weeks at a time, where branches and leaves grow and decay in the natural cycles that have evolved over millenia, offer housing, moisture, and nourishment for small important friends like mushrooms, worms, miniscule flies. The little jungles with their vines and tiny wild blooms have a lyrical whimsy; they're alive, regenerating, connected.