Turned Earth

After spending five or six hours of back-breaking work digging up sod by hand, we decided to rent a sod-cutter, in order to preserve the established grass, which we added to some desperately barren areas on our surrounding property. Using this machine also turned out to be back-breaking work, but 4 hours of rental and a completed job beats the endless hours that it would have taken to remove the sod by hand.

After removing the rolls of sod, Lars and I walked down to a neighbor's house with lots of tractors and implements stored around the property. Hoping he had a large tiller, we figured it wouldn't hurt to ask for a helping hand. Sure enough, our (slightly grumbly) neighbor said he'd come by later that afternoon, tiller and all. I think Lars must have run to the window three dozen times looking for a "big scoop truck" (which is what he calls all large moving vehicles) before neighbor Gil finally arrived.

Watching new earth be turned is really a sight to behold. The scent is so rich and the contrast from dry earth with grassy bits to the deep tones of browns and blacks is so beautiful. We followed behind the tractor, shoes off of course, picking up rocks to keep out of the tilling implement while it went for round two. After Gil had driven the tractor back home, Lars spent the next hour running his own little tractors through the fluffy dirt and I even caught him jumping up and down, enjoying the sensation of falling into the softness. I joined him since it looked so pleasurable, even though I knew that compaction wasn't going to be fun tilling up again when it came time to plant. Oh well...We baked a quick "thank you" pie, dropped it off and enjoyed the extra pie (made for all of our hard work) while admiring our new garden.

So now the potatoes are in and we're starting in on parsnips, beets and kale. Can't wait to see what this garden will look like come August!