Magic moment

Last weekend, it was finally dry enough to put my seed potatoes in the ground. I had seven different kinds of wonderful potatoes, yellow, red, and blue. They were all from the store, rather than dedicated seed potatoes. Experts advise against using store bought potatoes as seeds, because they get some sort of anti-germination treatment that supposedly inhibits sprouting. However, for some inexplicable reason, my pantry appears to provide ideal conditions for potato germination. So over the last few months, I simply kept the ones that started having eyes in a paper bag on the top shelf. Now, I really needed to get them in the ground, as some of the sprouts had become rather long (which is apparently another no-no in potato-growing circles).

So come sunday, the sun was out and the ground was not too bad and I grabbed both hubby and daughter for a stint in the garden. I turned the earth where I was going to plant, and was amazed by the number of earthworms in it. We've had this plot for just one season. When we got it, it was completely compacted with nothing but crabgrass growing on it. In several weekends of back breaking labor, we loosened the soil using nothing but a spading fork and tons of persistence. The ground was so hard that I had to stand on the spading fork and rock side to side in order to be able to drive it into the ground. We added horse manure generously, once in the summer and once in fall. By now, the presence of all that organic material had attracted literally thousands of earth worms. As a result, the soil was so loose that for the most part, I was able to dig "hands only", not even needing the extra weight of my foot to push the spading fork completely into the ground.

This time, it took only about an hour to dig the potato bed, which takes up half the current plot (about 200 sqft). Another 45 minutes later, I'd popped my seed spuds in. For almost the entire time, I noticed a small, brilliant blue, russet and tan western blue bird sitting on the fencepost in the next plot. He was very clearly observing me, cocking his little head this way and that while he was checking out what I was doing. The moment I moved away from the plot, he dove down and immediately started pulling fat earthworms out of the ground. Good for him- I think we really have a few to spare!

I took a walk with the hubby and baby to go check out the other plot. When we came back, the area surrounding the freshly dug plot was swarming with birds. Literally. They were all snacking on the myriad of bugs and critters that my digging had disturbed, snapping them up as fast as they could before they would hide back under ground. Since we were talking, my husband and I weren't paying attention. It was the baby who spotted them first. She cried out excitedly and almost jumped off my arm. We looked up and saw them taking flight ahead of us, twenty or thirty birds from various species. It was a magical moment, and I felt blessed- for my daughter, her joy, the birds, and for having contributed to their existence in a small way.