Tilling the Ground

My husband tilling the ground around my potato patch. The dark spot on the right is where we burned our wood scraps from the yard. It made for a very dark rich soil when he was done. I will keep you posted on how nutritious it actually is for our plants. 

Potato garden. First thing in the ground. I labeled the plants with
glass water bottles, then put a temporary fence around it to
protect it from my dogs and cats. 

I have never been known to have much patience. Which is why my poor husband is tilling the ground around my carefully planted potatoes. You see I couldn't wait. I had been painstakingly growing them from old store bought potatoes indoors from February until The first week in April. My poor little plants were outgrowing their pots and i was worried after all that work they would die.

Now we don't own a tiller. But my mother in-law does. I wanted the ground tilled in March but the tiller is so large you cant just pick it up and put it in the back of the truck, we needed a short bed trailer to get it home. Getting this coordinated seemed like it took forever. Probably didn't but the point is that it seemed like it had been an eternity. Finally we get the tiller home the first week in April and the darn thing wont start. OMG! I was quietly freaking out. My luck, right?! My husband worked on the tiller a good part of the day with not much progress.

In the mean time my anxiety over my potatoes had gotten the best of me and I tilled the garden myself with a hoe and a garden rake. This is when I decided that tilling by hand is a lot of work and I am glad this is 2017 and not 1917. I think I would never have entertained the idea of a garden back then.

My potatoes are planted both red and white with a few onions I was experimenting with. I dig the holes, plant the plants, cover the holes, and shake a leaf and pine needle compost over them to keep them warm. Then I hear the loud roar of an engine. Thank god. I don't have to till the rest of this garden by hand. My husband brings me the tiller grinning ear to ear, then looks down. 'What is this?' he asks me. 'Didn't you think I would get this?'

Oops! So now here he is doing an amazing job tilling my garden around my little potato patch.