Prepping for Tomatoes

On Friday I dug into the garden plot that was fallow last year. Tall weeds took it over and died, leaving a soft place for wildlife and two feral cats to bed down and sleep protected from trouble. As I moved the weeds aside and pulled up the plastic, my feet sank into the soft, fertile loam. I worked a lot of years to get soil to be like that.

Because the pile of dead grasses was so tall, I burned it instead of running the mower over it for mulch. The fire was intense, radiating its heat 20 yards away. Luckily, it didn’t harm the nearby kale and chard plot. It burned, bright, intensely, and soon exhausted its fuel. Saturday morning I will start turning the soil over for tomato planting.

Because ambient temperatures were forecast in the low 80s, I started early at 7:30 a.m. By 1 p.m. I was tired and achy. It was a good day’s work. A six hour shift is what I can stand these days. Enough of them back-to-back and we’ll have a garden.

I found volunteer collard plants in the plot. I picked them all and we’ll use them in the kitchen this weekend. I can already sense it will be an abundant year.

Editor’s Note: Still short posting while I work on the garden. About another week to go before the main planting is finished.