I don't need a rototiller because my garden beds are filled with Pine Island black dirt. Specifically, nine tons of the stuff, all of which I shoveled into the beds myself two years ago. A labor of love and well worth the effort.
The black dirt of Pine Island (NY) is soil left over from an ancient glacial lake bottom. It is supposed that the glaciers melted 12,000 years ago, sending organic sediment to the bottom of the lake. Augmented by decades of past flooding of the Wallkill River, the area was referred to as the "drowned lands" and was considered not useful for farming or homesteading. And then, over 150 years ago, Polish and German immigrants arrived and installed a series of drains to make the land suitable for farming. Due to the depth of organic matter (30 feet deep in some places), the soil is rich in sulfur and nitrogen. The 26,000 acres of black dirt in the Pine Island area is the largest concentration of such soil in the United States outside of the Florida Everglades! Right here in my own back yard!
For decades, the main crop in the black dirt region of Pine Island was onions, and certainly, onions are still grown there today. But the farmers have expanded their crops to include lettuce, radishes, potatoes, tomatoes and carrots. Because, why not? It's damn good soil!
The standard for good gardening soil is that it should resemble chocolate cake. Would you need a rototiller to turn chocolate cake? My job today was not hard. I do have to admit, though, that one of the larger beds, which existed years before I demo'd the pool and built the new raised beds, has old soil enhanced by black dirt. It is much harder to turn, but it is still manageable.
And so it begins. Gardening season! I am in love with the dirt that will give birth to a harvest of the best organic vegetables I could ever want!
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