Of course, many times what I plan and what actually happens are two entirely different things.
In reality, I ended up planting some carrot and onion seeds in a section of the garden. It's still too early to plant in this region of the country, so I halved some plastic containers and sank them over the garden bed to create a greenhouse effect. They may do well. They may also die. Regardless, I have more seeds, and I really wanted to get dirty, so it was worth it.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I started. I didn't know what kind of condition the soil was in. I was optimistic about it, though, because the ground had been ignored for quite some time. Leaves, walnuts, and other organic debris had been allowed to settle. I cleared away the majority of the debris to see what the dirt below it actually looked like.
Gorgeous. It was love at first sight.
There was one thing that I needed to change about the soil, however. It had a very large clay content, as you can see from the way it held itself together in my hand just a little too perfectly. Too much clay in the soil can cause carrots to shape themselves rather crookedly because of the extra work they have to do. I didn't really want to have L-shaped carrots, so this was a slight problem.
It's an easy fix, though. I brought my bag of jiffy soil over and placed just enough into the dirt to do the job of disrupting the clay. No more, no less.
I gazed at my dirt with love. It was perfect. Some people may think a strong feeling like love shouldn't be associated with something like dirt, but I'd have to disagree. Dirt is history. It was there long before us. It tells a story, and when it's healthy it teems with life. If you respect and care for earth, it cares for you.
Simplicity. How can somebody not love it?
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