Today I transplanted a few tomatoes.
What struck me wasn’t the tomatoes. It was the soil.
The trowel slid into the ground with almost no resistance. One twist of the wrist opened a deep planting pocket. I dropped the plant in, pulled the soil back around it, and moved on to the next one.
A few weeks ago, the experience would have been completely different.
I would have been stabbing, prying, and wrestling with the soil just to make the same hole. The trowel would hit hard ground. I’d have to work it back and forth, pull it out, stab again, and gradually chip away enough soil to fit the transplant.
Today the soil cooperated.
The difference was obvious the moment I put the trowel into the ground.
In the prepared row, the trowel sank in with very little effort. It was easy to push deeper and open a planting pocket for the tomato transplant.
By comparison, the unprepared soil fought back.
The same trowel that slipped effortlessly into the row had to be forced into the harder ground. Making a planting hole took more effort and more time. It would go down barely 2 inches and then stop after hitting resistance.
People argue endlessly about gardening methods.
No-dig.
Raised beds.
Tilling.
Cultivation.
Compost.
Mulch.
Every gardener seems convinced they have discovered the one true way.
I’m not interested in joining that argument.
What I know is this:
Working in loose, friable soil is a pleasure.
I understand now why generations of gardeners used plows, cultivators, hoes, middle busters, and tillers. They wanted the soil loose. They wanted planting to be easy. They wanted roots to grow freely. They wanted cultivation to require less effort.
You can debate the finer points of gardening philosophy all day long, but when a trowel slides into the ground and opens a planting pocket with almost no effort, that’s a difficult thing to argue against.
The tomatoes I moved seem to be recovering well.
Will that be because of the way the soil was prepared?
Time will tell.
But I can say this: transplanting into loose soil was one of the most enjoyable gardening experiences I’ve had all season.
Sometimes the garden teaches you things through your hands long before you understand them with your head.
Today was one of those days.
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