Making Amends

The calendar says it is mid-winter. Yet as I walk this morning the sun is warm on my face and I hear more bird song than in the past few weeks. The cardinal pairs are whistling their clear metallic chirp and I glimpse a Kentucky Warbler high in a tree singing its chuuree, chuuree song. Overhead, calls from a flock of Canada Geese flying in V-formation, signal to me the transition into a new season. Even though we have hardly had a winter, I am giddy with hopes for Spring.

I think my giddiness for Spring springs from my new garden. Since I last posted about staking it and applying straw to the top layer, much has happened. Danny showed up and added a layer of cow manure and then plowed up the entire garden. Maggie has been busy researching and ordering seeds from the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed catalog and has promised to get some seeds started in-doors for a jump start on the season. And Ed used a broadfork this past weekend to break up the larger lumps of clay. As you can tell, my new garden is turning into a community garden.

For my part, I took soil samples to the Shelby County Cooperative Extension Service. Fourteen days later, I received a detailed report on the state of my soil. Unfortunately, I had no idea what it was reporting -- high school chemistry was not my forte. 

Free of charge, the Cooperative Extension Service tested soil from my gardens.

Fortunately, I rely on the kindness of strangers, or, in this case, a new friend: Steve, proprietor of Fresh Start Growers' Supply on East Jefferson Street in downtown Louisville. In two seconds time, he informed me that I needed to make some amends. Specifically, my new garden needed some added nitrogen, potash and lime. I left there with 6 lbs. of sulfur, 10 lbs. of something called "Fluff the Bed" (a custom-blended fertilizer), and something else in a large unmarked bag. I also had a bag of organic winter rye to use as a cover crop and Steve assured me that it would sprout when the temperature reached 35 degrees (no problem these last two weeks).

So, this past weekend I amended the garden just as I was instructed and then broadcast the rye seed. As a cover crop, rye is supposed to hold the soil in place against the forces of wind and water and have a positive effect on soil tilth. I know it is having a positive effect on my disposition. Come on Spring!