Why I don't want to roto-till

Not that I judge anyone who does...

OK, so admittedly on the political spectrum I fall somewhere between bleeding-heart liberal and hippie. For some that might be explanation enough. And really, it's true I don't want to give the oil companies any more money than I have to, even to buy the few gallons of gas necessary to run a power tiller. Oh, and hand digging is good exercise. And it's practical enough for us since we're not trying to make a living from our garden.

But another good reason is to spare the earthworms! Every gardener knows the benefits of earthworms to the structure (looser) and content (richer) of the soil. The soil here is quite literally crawling with them. The compaction is the down-side of the past horse grazing, but fertile soil (due to their production and distribution of manure) loaded with earthworms is a major benefit. I'm not sure if it's true but I'm thinking that in a place like this, where the horses would have needed to be fed hay in addition to the grazing they could do, that the animals actually added more organic matter than just letting the grass grow and die (as happens in "natural" grasslands) would have. (Of course that source of fertility was imported from somewhere else.)

Finally finished digging the second row today. I'm definitely noticing the difference in difficulty digging now that it hasn't rained in a couple of weeks.

This post is dedicated to all the worms workin' away in our gardens as we speak...