We were inside the house attempting to clean (well, I was attempting to clean), when we heard the sound of our gate opening. When Mason saw that Alan was here, he jumped into his boots and ran outside. Alan brought his tractor, a different one this time. How many tractors does Alan have? We had a little chat to confirm what was to be tilled, and then he got to work.
I have to admit, I felt as excited as Mason, though not for the same exact reasons. My farm boy darted around the yard to watch the action of the tilling from different views. I busied myself in the greenhouse and tried to contain my excitement. Now, it was really happening. Now comes the hard work. Now the garden would begin to come together before our eyes, springing to life as irrigation is run, rows are prepared, and seeds are planted. This is the work I love.
River, however, is not so sure about the tractor, but she rolls with it as she does with everything (except being separated from me, of course).
My thoughts turned to this soil, as I watched it become soft and smooth before my eyes. This is good dirt. This is soil that is loved, and offers up so much in return. We have come a long way since we first planted this space, and our care for the soil shows. I think about a shift to no-till gardening, something I've thought about a lot. The idea behind no-till is that you leave the soil structure in place, and continually build the fertility with specific crops and organic matter. It preserves the intregrity of the soil and allows all of the various organisms to thrive, and protects our precious topsoil from erosion. We are trying it out on a small scale this year, so we'll see how it goes. I still have a lot to read and learn about it.
As Alan was tilling, it started to rain. Two days in a row of rain! And not just a little sprinkle...we're talking a good, heavy rain. I stepped back into the greenhouse, mostly for the baby on back. The greenhouse if my absolute favorite place to be when it's raining, especially now that there are beautiful green seedlings everywhere.
We thanked Alan, Mason jumped out of the boots he jumped into earlier, and ran around in the soil of the new garden plot in the rain. Beautiful.
Thank you Alan, thank you millions of soil organisms and thank you rain!