Dig We Must

I never know 100% if I'm doing things in the best way.  All I ever do in gardening is to try things and see how it goes.

Sure I read books and watch videos.  But in the end it's try it out and see what grows.

I do have methods that work.  Work is the operative word, I put a lot of effort into the intensive methods I use.  Currently in the South Garden, I'm getting good results only by digging the planting bed up completely, removing all the soil, heaping it up somewhere, digging out all the tree roots...again...and then mixing the soil with compost before returning it to the bed.  This reeeeally works, I can vouch for that.  And it's time-tested, Asian farmers have produced food this way for a very long time.

Today I was out there with a hoe, hacking away at roots in the South Garden.  I'm getting just as big a pile of them as I did the last time I did this.  So far I can't get the landscaping cloth out, it's too bound up in roots....that's so not supposed to happen...LOL...some "root barrier" that turned out to be.  I'm definitely not using any more of that.

When I'm satisfied I've gotten enough roots dug out, and I've got enough compost, I'll start mixing soil for the bed and bring it all back from where I piled it all up.  I'll say this, intensive gardening is not for lazy people.  That's for sure.

Maybe someday I'll be in such good shape from all this digging that it won't seem difficult at all...well, maybe.  Does the means justify the end?  Will I turn into the Incredible Hulk?  Have I gone over The Edge?  Does anyone care?...best question of all...LOL.

My neighbor's garden looks great this year.  But of course he spends money like it's water sometimes...buys all his soil in huge truckloads, uses a power cultivator, irrigates with a permanent set of sprinklers on timers, uses a bunch of different fertilizers simultaneously, etc. Then he doesn't seem to use much of it...OK, none of my business, I get that.