This spring brings another new garden. Our decision to grow more of our own specialized produce for the restaurant, things we can’t get from our local farm partners, has prompted the design of another raised bed potager. As the days beat down sun and the air warms, the apple trees blossom, and we map out the space off our terrace and rent a sod cutter. The sod cutter is a brilliant invention. We thought about just tilling the garden, but knew better. The sod would just get mixed up in with the tilled soil and we would forever be fighting grass. (We speak from experience.) We are daunted by lifting the sod by hand. Then, we read about the sod cutter in Henry Homeyer’s classic collection of gardening essays: The Vermont Gardener’s Companion. Rented for the day, the sod cutter arrived in a friend’s pick-up truck shiny and red like a new fire engine, or a child’s red wagon. Almost with ease, we cut away and rolled the grass like so many little carpets. The neighbors, having just finished a building project, carted so many rolls away for seeding a new lawn.
So, we begin correctly, with a blank slate. The soft brown earth, now tilled, is a new canvas.
--Deirdre
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