whacking in a garden

SO, you all have your winter-weathered compost pile turned and that garden spade with a strong smooth handle and a clean sharp blade at the ready, right? Us? Not so much. We always have ambitions for a black gold yielding compost from our zero waste kitchen goings-on, but have fallen short— defeated by inefficient countertop containers (hullo, bugs and smell) or underperforming barrel tumblers (who has the arm strength to dig that thing out? who?).

We have largely embraced porch containers for those things we most want to pluck: tomatoes, usually small, peppers, and herbs. Benign neglect being the order of the day, anything planted in the greater garden must do well pretty much on its own— and, since, there is serious debate about how much tilling is good for the planet, were are erring on the side of low disturbance of the soil.

We have come round to not only saving the soil, but eliminating the unnatural lawn as much as possible. We’ll be getting into the whys and wherefores from the effects of the devastating loss of insect life to the benefits of healthy biodiversity. We have eliminated much of the mown grass on our patch, planted for seasonal picking and use for birds, wildlife— and, oh, us as well!

Healthy planting areas are alive with motion— bees, beetles, worms, butterflies and birds, birds, birds…

Enough for all and plenty to share.