Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Ground breaking!


Yesterday we had snow for the first time this year. Heavy wet flakes mixed with rain. It only lasted a minute, but still pretty and a sign of things to come. And while I was looking out the front window thinking ahead to Winter, I could have sworn I heard a... a... snowblower? I thought to myself: Wow, time to adjust those meds!

I looked out the windows and finally found the culprit. Out my back window I saw Craig and his trusty roto-tiller going at the ring garden! Yay!

I hustled into some outdoor gear, grabbed a mattock and joined him in the fun. Craig would go along and sometimes *wang* a rock or root would need to be relocated. Hence the mattock (a pick with a pointy end and a flat end - great for breaking up hard dirt). Over the next 2 hours we found little impediment in the 285-foot ring, except in one spot. But right there it seems we must have intersected a crypt or buried wall or a glacial moraine because we pulled out rock after rock within a 10-foot long section of ring. And even when I just wanted to spike the mattock into nearby sod when I didn't need it, I'd hit a rock in that area. My imagination took off and now I'm wondering if there really is an ancient Roman road buried in my back yard, guaranteed to set all those that nay-say pre-Columbian opponents on their collective ears? Or did the tiller just cut into where some old French drains opened out to the lawn. Who knows?

But I digress.

Anyway, it had been around 4:00 o'clock when we started and dark came on by 6:00. While Craig and I were both game to push on in the dark, a sudden rain squall and heavy winds made us decide to finish another day. But what before had just been a line drawn in the lawn had now become a reality, a commitment, a project. The future plants in the ring garden will eventually help honeybees and other bee-type pollinators in the area. And that is worth digging up a lot of rocks. As I walked back to the house, I inhaled deeply and enjoyed the out-of-season Spring-like humus smell of fresh turned earth.

Later, from the house, the ring was much more pronounced now. Not so much like a crop circle. More like a racetrack. And if I listen really really hard, do I hear... chariots? Nah!

More garden buzz soon!

2 comments:

  1. Did you ever find out what all those rocks were?

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, I didn't. More than likely when they graded the property way back when, then just pushed all the rocks downhill and covered them with a little dirt. But, lately ... I've been thinking it may be from the foundations of an early Viking settlement.... !?

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