The ground is turned

The spring brings such a joy as it comes time to run my feet through the dirt of the garden.

This year took a bit more effort for me as my tiller was finding every reason not to run this year.

I had endured that last winter and turned the rows by hand. Sadly, it wasn’t as good as I hoped it might be.

It took my brother and I to give it a good tune up a couple of weeks back and it still had a hidden issue neither of us could find. It’s amazing how a small engine with only so many working parts could give one such a time.

A fellow gardening friend – Pete – thankfully had the tinkering abilities to get it going. Maybe it was the magic touch.

A warm day and a couple pulls on the engine and I was off tilling the garden giving it a solid treatment.

After letting the fertilizer sink in a couple of days, I was ready to plant.

I rotated my normal vegetables – cucumbers, yellow and zucchini squash, potatoes, green beans, corn, bell peppers, corn and tomatoes and added a few new to try out this year – spinach, lettuce, onions, cantaloupe and a couple of herbs – basil and thyme.

I learned many of my early gardening from my Grandpa Jesse and my mom and dad. It’s amazing what a little hard work, well cultivated soil, good seeds and some watering can provide.

When I was a child, my mother put up in jars so many vegetables from what we grew in our small garden. We often had food throughout the winter. With each passing year as a kid, I took great joy in seeing a greater yield in what we were doing.

Since I returned to the effort about three years back, unfortunately, I have not seen the return of those childhood yields. Perhaps I have forgotten a few of those early lessons which gave me such a childhood advantage. Or simply, my soil is so much poorer in where I garden today compared with what I had built up over time as a youth.

It seems I can manage a pretty good crop of cucumbers, squash and peppers, as those are what I have pickled, frozen and eaten the most through the winter from my efforts.

With the rising costs of food, that we all are seeing in the stores, I have high hopes that I will be able to be more effective this season in my endeavor.

I even tried a few experimental watermelon in a place I don’t normally plant. As they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

In any event feeling the fresh-tilled soil between my toes reminds me such of walking behind my grandfather as his plowed.

It’s not exactly the same, but I can almost see his Bib overalls legs up ahead of me as I look along the ground. I can hear his booming voice as he calls out for me to bring the seeds and walk behind him placing them just the right distance apart.

Then months later, I remember looking up at the corn so high above me head with the bean vines running up each one.

My seeds are in the ground, the watering will bring on what comes next and hopefully in a few months, all of my efforts will yield some great eats.

I hope you are taking the time to plant some food wherever you are. Even if its just a few plants on a patio. Every little bit helps and we all need all the help we can get these days.