Prelude to Spring

 The first sign of Spring is the arrival of seed catalogs in the mail and all the bags of soil amendments piled in the parking lot of the local Bi-Mart in Sutherlin.    This last Sunday our neighbor, Jim brought us a couple of bags of greens from his greenhouse.  I have been providing him with biochar to incorporate into their compost and from that he makes a potting soil that beats anything I can buy or put together.   Something he learned from his grandmother in his younger days.   My gardening abilities are limited by a shortage of water in the summer and an increase of critters eating everything I plant, except potatoes.   Last summer my motion camera detected mice climbing the bean supports and eating all the foliage, plus everything else, including what was started in our greenhouse.   Even our three cats can't keep up with the varmints.   Anybody know of a poison that will not be harmful to our cats?  

What would we do during these uncertain times without planning for our gardens this coming spring?