The Planting Begins
Even though the last frost date is still weeks away, we’ve started planting for our Farmyard Shares, growing cold-season crops that thrive in the chill and getting a jumpstart on others in our greenhouse. There’s something about the smell of dirt that makes me feel alive. After the cold, icy scent of winter, the rich smell of the soil is one of the first hints of spring. Even before the plants start pushing through it, the earth seems to be waking up, shaking off the old season, and getting ready for something new.
Of course, not everything on the farm smells like new earth. On compost-turning days, it smells like - well, you can imagine! All of it smells like life.
It’s messier, growing in the soil, than it is in the hydroponic greenhouse. There, everything is carefully calibrated and planned, exactingly controlled. Out here, life does its thing, moving in its mysterious ways. Dirt finds its way under my fingernails and stains my knees. Worms wriggle through their underground homes. There’s so much movement, change, and growth.
I can’t wait to see where it takes us.
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