Plowing

Well, today I got the pleasure of cranking up the old John Deere, hooking up the tiller attachment, and plowing my fields. It's a bittersweet end to 2001, as the plow pulverized the remains of what was the biggest garden in Lenoir City, I recalled memories of each plant as it was turned under.

The wheels of the tractor are stained with pokeweed berry juice (yes, we had more pokeweed than veggies) and I'm covered head to foot in dust. The gardens are 1/4 tilled now, and I'm going to go out later this afternoon and do another quarter. For some reason, I think plowing is the most enjoyable part of gardening, besides, of course, seeing your seeds germinate.

Dave

dave-I luv tilling-i thought i was a lil crazy. I hate when the boyz run through my nice tilled dirt leaving footprints.
I told dh the other day-I luv making paths and then garden around them!
I luv tilled soil! =]

Ain't many things prettier than fresh-dug ground...and especially in the spring when you can smell what you've missed all winter. My gardens are all plowed/tilled and a nice green carpet of clover is blanketing most of it...such a site!

Yep, crimson clover will soon cover mine, as well. I'm a little late in getting the winter cover done, but... well, I've been busy in front of this puter and finishing the building of the greenhouse. :)

Dave

The ground has just a down to earth smell. Just wonderful. Dave you mentioned polkweed. I have some in my yard and a cousin and my wife disagree on what it is. Maybe you can help. The cousin says it's not polk salad because it has berries on it. She called it something besides polk salad or polkberry. My wife says it is polk salad. Are they the same. I know polk salad can be eaten but is poison. It has to be picked young not to be. Can you settle the discussion? Does polk salad have red berries?

If it gets big enough it will get berries. It is only good young. Spelling is poke. We have poke salat days at a town not far from me to celebrate this earliest of all greens.

There is some mystical connection between humans and tilled soil. It must be the earth starting all over again, all fertile and inviting, luring us with that incomparable scent, eau de soil. Long winter days are more satisfying if we know we have the bounty of spring to anticipate. To everything there is a season.

I have never plowed. I've done a LOT of 'fitting', disking, dragging, cultipacting. Plowing was one of the few jobs that the men always reserved for themselves around here. There seems to be a hypnotic effect to it - turning over sod, the beginning of making a field say something entirely new. It is one job that I really never heard any complaints about - unless, of course, it was a wet year.

I did once haul the plow tractor around a really wet field with another tractor - but that doesn't count, just wasn't the same thing!

I just love climbing up on our old ford tractor and plowing and harrowing the garden. I use the single turn plow to dig trenches for water lines and then hook up the scraper blade to cover them up. My husband is not allowed on the tractor much because of his back. I bushhog our land and everything I can with the tractor. We are at this moment putting in some raised beds. We harrowed, then rakes with a homemade landscape rake, then used the scrapper blade to pull the dirt out. Put up three sides of the beds and filled it 2/3 full of rotting what straw and then used the scraper blade to push the dirt back in to the bed. alot easier than doing it by hand.
My hubby gets a kick when people ride by and stop watching me on the tractor. I guess there are still those who think a woman can't do these kinds of things. My hubby has taught me alot in the 20 yrs we have been together. Well I guess i have rattled on enough. bye janet

Janet, color me jealous!

Janet, I agree with you.. Woman can do anything like men do.. I do ride on tractor!!!

I'm getting out the Ol'Horse (TroyBuilt)and turnin' some earth this Saturday, I caught a great sale on winter cover crop mix, .35/lb., and I put 2 tons of sand in the area of the garden that has bad drainage, and compacted soil. Last Sunday I brought in the sweetest Broccoli and Brussel sprouts ever, I let the frost get them to bring up the sugar. I started a new compost pile and put the finished compost in an area of the yard that the new Hosta bed is going in, I'm going to try the no-till lasagna method in this one (newspaper, sand, leaves, newspaper, compost, mulch). I have to start the spinach in the cold/hot bed. And does anybody know where I can find a on/off switch for a Stienmax, model Haecksel Max 1500 electric chipper/shredder, it is German made and they have gone out of busines.