This Imperfect Plot

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March 26th, 2012

Another excellent early spring weekend. Saturday was rainy but Sunday was great around here. Not quite as warm as it’s been, but I’m OK with that. After a week of highs in the 70s, it’s good to get back to feeling like spring again. I thought maybe we missed it and we jumped right to summer.

Yesterday, I was able to get a lot done—turning the soil in some raised beds, weeding, dividing and moving perennials—but I feel like the best work I got done was the imagining. Gardening puts me into a certain kind of mediation. I’m not always aware that it’s happening, and after a few minutes I’ll realize that I’m just leaning on my shovel, looking around, lost in thought. (My wife calls this Spacing Out.) These meditative garden space outs are simply a creative lateral drift that leaves me with good ideas.

Speaking of preparing the soil in spring, now is a good time to mention that this week, we’ll be giving away this cool little tiller/cultivator from Sun Joe:Tiller Joe TJ600E
This medium-sized, no-bend, lightweight electric tiller features a seven inch cultivating depth and four steel blade tines.  TJ600E cultivates a 14 inch wide path in one pass thanks to a substantial 6.5 amp motor.  Made for an average area, this two-handle tiller retails for $159.99.

All you have to do to enter is go here to register: http://www.organicgardening.com/sun-joe-sweepstakes

One lucky winner will win this tiller from Sun Joe. A winner will be selected randomly on Monday April 2.

* No purchase necessary to enter or win.
* A purchase will not improve your chances of winning.
* You are not a winner yet.
* Void where prohibited.
* Must be over 18 to enter, and legal resident of 50 United States or DC and Canada (excluding residents of the Province of QUEBEC)
* Sweepstakes begins at 12:01 a.m. ET March 26, 2012 and ends 11:59 p.m. ET March 30, 2012 with the final drawing on April 3, 2012
* Entries must be received by 11:59 pm (ET) on March 30, 2012
* Click here for official rules.
* Sun Joe, 86 Executive Ave.  Edison, NJ 08817 and Rodale Inc., 400 South 10th Street, Emmaus, PA 18048-0099 are the sponsors of this sweepstakes.

Tags: garden beds, giveaway, tiller

March 12th, 2012

My garden and my blog have a lot in common these days. Both have been dormant and inactive all winter, showing only the occasional sign of life—a post about Christmas trees here, some winter kale leaves there.

And my mind has a lot in common with my compost pile. I’m always adding to it—kitchen scraps of pop culture, grass clippings from the internet, armloads of leaves from my family tree—and slowly the process of composting and composing continues.

Let this blog post be the first of many for the season. Let this short essay be the potting mix in the seed tray. Let this little story be the newspaper pots all filled up and ready to plant. Let today’s post be the first of the onion shoots poking through soil.

Yes, I feel it. I am waking from my hibernation—as a writer and a gardener.

Two months ago I posted a list of my gardening goals for the year. My first two goals are intrinsically connected. The first was to grow only what I start from seed myself. Ambitious? Yes. Impossible? No. My second goal was to grow only High Mowing Organic Seeds. When I wrote to High Mowing, they graciously agreed to supply my seeds this year.  So you can imagine how happy I was when the big envelope from Vermont showed up in my mailbox.

Last week my daughter and I started our onions, ‘Siskiyou Sweet Walla Walla‘ and ‘Dakota Tears,’ and this morning we saw the first little green shoots. This week, we’ll start even more.

And yesterday, I was lucky enough to spend some time in the garden. I’m trying out a Sun Joe electric tiller and was able to get a nice patch of garden ready to plant. That little machine has some kick to it. In a few weeks, I’ll be posting a review of the tiller and giving one away to some lucky reader. Stay tuned.

And so this imperfect plot continues….