Garden 2011 Update 4

Today I came home from work, walked the dog, fed the dog and changed clothes. Then I tilled the garden.

Without the tiller the chore would have taken most of a Saturday, I would be sweaty, filthy and exhausted, With the tiller, it took two hours on a Monday, I was a bit warm, a  little dusty and mildly interested in taking a break. I washed my hands, several times,-which was irritating because I have very nice garden gloves just sitting there, then made dinner for myself and  settled in to ride the exerbike five miles.

I did have to take a shower.

When I turned over the garden last year I wanted to die about half way through. I certainly didn't go back over what I had all ready done for yucks.

The tiller was a champ and a much harder worker than I am. I thought I was all bad ass with my  shovel and pitchfork but I was a piker. The only thing that slowed it down was the winter cover I planted. I should have cut it back a few weeks ago, or mowed it or sythed it or whatever, it was way too much for Baby Tiller - who by the way is a total rock star - they slowed it down and got caught in the tines, forcing me to stop what I was doing and clear them out. Over and over. When I do this next year, I will know better. I will also not plant vine-y plants. Grasses, yes, vines, no.

Anyway, the whole exercise still only took two hours and that is only because I kept finding reasons to go back over what I had all ready done. I will need to hit it with a rake to even it out and maybe a shovel because as rock star as tiller is, if the driver spends too much time in one place, the tiller would be happy to till to China. I may also re-till in a few days because the job was made a little less easy by the fact that the dirt was a little closer to mud than I might have liked. The winter cover did a great job keeping moisture in the ground all by itself and then it rained like a bitch for a couple of days only a couple of days ago.

Now, the winter cover, that of which I allowed to stay in the beds, is going to slowly rot in the dirt and fertilize my plants and make them happy. I might add some of the vines I expelled from the garden as time goes on. It depends if I have forgiven it for being all viney and tiller befouling.