Eloise is 5 now.  This changes everything in the garden.  She knows to take her shoes off before she goes inside.  She knows how to put her shoes on before she goes outside.  She has an array of garden shoes and hand-me-down boots to choose from, and she has clear preferences (no boots if she wants to swing because they might fall off!).  Today I even asked her to go get my camera from my desk so that I could stay outside and keep being dirty.

She knows this double-digging stuff is making me sore.  She even tried to do some strategic public relations for me today:  “Daddy, isn’t Mommy doing a great job double-diggeling?  Isn’t she doing beautiful digging?”

Eloise spends her time outside figuring out how tools work, moving dirt and compost (expert at this), singing to plants, complaining about tools not working right, feeding imaginary goats, talking about how much she wants to eat berries, pretending she’s a bear who swings, and cheering me on.  I love her so much.

It’s premature for me to comment on our soil’s health, but it feels really different this year.  I wonder if our accumulated efforts to improve the soil during the last six years have reached a new critical mass where now processes are working far beyond what we’ve done?

I’ve never seen the ground out there as alive as it is right now — even in the more difficult parts of the yard.  I’m hopeful that we’ll see a difference this year in what we are able to produce.