Finally Tilled the Garden Today

Mindy and I went to Lohman’s yesterday. I wanted to find some seeds for getting the garden started. It is a little early to plant, and the garden is really ready yet. I just wanted something to look forward to in the next couple of weeks. Gardening brings me joy. Looking forward to gardening is what gets me through January and Feburary. I start planning in March, April is when I start to get busy. I found corn and peas, along with most of the herbs I grow on the porch.

I had to get the mowing going before I could work on the garden. The kids do not seem to understand that the lawn tractor is a tool for mowing grass. They leave swaths of the property uncut when they use it. I went to those spots to show them that it dose in fact work there. I also have to demonstrate the use of the push mower, it can also be used to cut grass in tight places.

I got the tiller out and checked the oil. All I needed was to add some fuel and get the beast started. I do not know why they left a priming bulb off of the parts list. I is a real bitch to start, but it runs like a top once it is going. I make a shallow pass through the entire garden, then I go deep. I go from trying to hold the machine back from charging through the fence, then I have to push the machine during the deep phase. The only thing worse than using a tiller is doing all of this with a turning fork.

No till? No thank you. I tried to just break the sod where I would plant for two years. It is a labor intensive method, spending every night weeding and cutting grass with scissors. I went back to using my turning fork to break all of the ground that I planted, as I planted. I am too old for that now. A petroleum powered tiller tears through the previous year’s organics, and mixes them with the current year’s growth.