My new garden hadn’t seen a lick of proper work in years before I got here — so now I’m out there turnin’ over one bed after another.

With the turf I cut out in neat little blocks, plus straw and biochar, I’m stackin’ up layer after layer of compost piles (you can spot one right there in the middle). Looks like a big ol’ Black Forest cake — just don’t go tryin’ to eat it. Give it two or three years, though, and it’ll turn into some mighty fine compost.

What you don’t see: I’ve already sifted the soil, and on the first half of that bed I’ve sown yellow mustard in the loosened ground. That fast-growing cover crop’ll bloom quick, and about a month later I’ll work it back into the soil as green manure.

Only after that do the tomato seedlings get their chance to move in — I’m runnin’ this place like a slow-cook recipe, not fast food.