What a difference a day makes...or a month...or a year...

The first week of March

We are looking to do the next phase of the garden.  It is time to plant corn.  It is time to consider the squash and peas and beans and more...
So this morning, as the sun was rising and everyone was getting coffee and oatmeal, I took a moment to jab a pitchfork into the ground and see what we would be facing.  Our methods for putting in the beds were really simple; cover up the grass and plant stuff.  At first we were hauling in dirt and trying to get compost going.  It was a hard job and we were getting things going rather quickly.  Then we moved to the next thing which was basically getting plants in the ground any way that we could.
The core concept remained the same.  Get things in the ground but continue to compost, continue to break down matter from around the property, continue, continue, continue...
Then what?

The first week of April.

Every time the lawn was mowed, the clippings would go in there.  Our plot is at the top of a hill and
people said that the nutrients would run down hill.  The beds and the organic matter are retaining seemingly everything and as long as we use this as the central dumping poin
t for all of the organic matter on the property, it continues to make the soil better and better.
We are starting to see worms crawling in and out of the beds, deftly dodging our shovels and diving into the ground to avoid pitch forks.

The soil mid-May

Meanwhile, some months ago, the ground was hard clay covered by tufts of grass.  You couldn't even get a pitchfork into it and it would break your back to pull it up if you could.  This is what permaculture means.  This is what it means to latch on to a piece of land and work it.  This is what it means to integrate things and allow God's plan to take its course.  Things nibble at other things, the ground goes from red and hard to brown and loose.
I can't wait to see what it looks like a year on and then ten years on.
There are all sorts of quotes going through my head right now.
"A year from now, you'll wish you had started today."-- Karen Lamb
"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow."--Audrey Hepburn
"Just do it"--Some Nike executive.

There are bunches of sayings out there, but none will take the place of seeing a gradual change that you produce yourself.