Jeff Tearing Things Up
Here it is again, time to wipe the old slate clean and start anew. The location of my gardening requires me to leave all of my work from the previous year behind, all the hundreds of tomatoes I’ve planted in the past have died, and are being recycled back into the mix. It’s not all bad though. Starting over each year gives me a freedom I would imagine other gardeners in warmer parts of the world will never know. Each year, the winter kills all of my triumpts, as well as let downs. Last year, the Late Blight took most of my plants early, but this year I won’t need to worry about the pest being reborn from the soil. The same destructive cold that forces me to start over is the same hero which cleared the soil of blight.
A Worm's Eye View
There are a few things that I can take with me from year to year, garden to garden. Those things include rocks, nutrients, and weeds. Each year, as I remove more and more rocks, and add more and more manure, the ground improves. In this “worms eye view”, you can see the hints of the improvements made in the winter months. I’ve added at least ten full truck loads of manure during the months when it was too cold for things to grow. The small bits of hay in the photo above, as well as chucks of blackened soil tell the tale of long weekends filled with every possible joke about taking manure….. It’s done to death, and I’m not taking $%*# any more = )
…well, at least not directly into the garden till the fall anyway….
My Blank Slate
So here it is, my blank slate. I wish this photo could show more accuratly just how much fun/work is ahead. The garden is 60 feet wide, and 250 feet long. Considering that I’ve devoted about 15 feet to onions, that leaves 235 feet of planting. Seems funny to smile when thinking of the work, but it’s all downhill from here. The tomatoes are still doing great in the greenhouse, and all that is really left is planting them, and watching them grow.
