Prepping the veggie garden...

Several years ago, my sister and brother in law, who are both master gardeners back in the French Alps, told me that tilling the ground wasn't such a good idea, as it disturbed all of its living components, from the biggest worm to the tiniest bacteria, and that ideally, one should aerate the soil instead of “turning” it, as we commonly do.

I didn't give it much thought at the time, as I had just bought a brand new gasoline-powered tiller and was ready to run it through our tiny garden.

One of the problem I quickly ran into was that it pulverized the dirt instead of just “turning” it, and was also getting into the irrigation pipes that run into the space and caused me to spend time and money repairing what I had broken.

A big part of the plot is also a strawberry patch in which I couldn't do anything without tearing apart the plants.

So, last spring, I took my four-tine digging fork and proceeded to aerate the ground. It wasn't perfect, but it worked as we had a great harvest all summer long.

Comforted by the good results, I repeated the operation, this weekend, just even more thoroughly, and have decided to get rid of the barely used mechanical tiller, and perhaps get a more sophisticated U-fork or broadfork to do the job more efficiently next year.

In the meantime, we're looking forward to a wonderful growing season!