It’s Feb. 22 but I couldn’t resist turning over one of my garden beds. Of course, it will be a couple of months before I can put seed into the ground.  The temps may be in the 50s but tonight it will get down into the 20s. That’s the high-desert differential.

Unfortunately, we haven’t had significant snow nor rain since December. That doesn’t bode well for our running waters and for those who use them for farming and recreation. Then, there is the danger of forest fire. I watched a series of snow storms hit the Northeast, where I used to live, and wish for some of that precipitation.

After staring through the window at my garden beds, I decided to

see if the soil was pliable. In an earlier post I wrote how I created two-foot trenches, four by eight feet, and then filled them with compost, bought top soil and some of the original dirt. (The soil here is heavy with clay. Think adobe.) I created the first three trenches five years ago. 

I plunged my shovel into the soil. It was an easy turn. The soil was dark and luscious. Oh, what the heck. So I dug down a foot, shoveling the dirt into a pile close by. I raided the compost heap that wintered nicely, filling the wheel barrow, dumping its contents into the trench, and then replacing the soil. The finished bed looks almost ready to go.

(While I was digging, I spotted two coyotes leaping through the sagebrush beyond the garden fence. My biologist friend, Steve, says they’re staking out their territory this time of the year.)

Soon, I will look over my seeds to see what I will need to buy. I’ll create a map of what will grow where. Good garden eating is ahead.

I’ve done some of my best thinking while digging. Usually it centers on a book project like today. Right now I’m close to finishing a middle-grade book, the third in a series. I was befuddled by the ending but I believe I’m closing in on it now.

As for gardening, I’ve only just begun.