It's Raining!

It's finally raining here, stingy as it is.  Hopefully, we'll get more throughout the evening and night.  A friend/client/teacher of mine once said that plants love rain water much more than water from the hose.  Makes perfect sense to me, although I have no empirical proof.  I believe that a really great gardener relies on instinct as much as fact.  Yes, that's the way I have always been, and probably always will be. God willing!

Speaking of empirical proof.  I'm reading a book that was recommended to me by my local Hydroponic store owner, called Teaming with Microbes, The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web - Revised Edition.  The authors are Jeff Lowenfels & Wayne Lewis.  They live in Alaska, so I've got to believe that these guys are dedicated gardeners.  It can't be real easy up there.  I'm not to far into into it, chapter two actually, but it is a great book for layman, and laywomen about the life that lives in the soil.  It's a whole other world of living things, and chemicals and tilling kills the life that lives there, requiring more and more chemical additives each year to grow plants.  The claim is that by leaving the food web community of the soil, (bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, and aphids),  to do their thing, that the soil will renew itself each year, and grow healthier and stronger.  Since I'm not far into the book, this is a simplistic description.

It's raining again, harder this time.  Yay!  The rain should help all of my seeds to sprout soon.  It's always a thrill to see them poking up through the dirt.  I'll dream tonight of soon to be fresh meals all summer long from my garden.  Sweet dreams indeed.