We used the occasion of the Lughnasadh Festival to clear the main garden of all of the current season’s plants and the several still flourishing winter plants, namely the collard and the kale. It was a fine end of season bounty.
We did, of course, pace our work cognizant of the holiday’s roots in the commemoration of the death of Tailtiu, Lugh’s foster-mother, who collapsed and died after clearing all the fields of Ireland, clearing the way for agriculture.
We then applied an even layering of composted soil produced over the past year. It too should be considered a bounty for those 12 wheelbarrow loads of rich earth came with little effort on our part. It was the season’s systems that milled the materials, many from the very garden we had cleared.
Along with the compost came hundreds of earth worms, heavy lifters in the compost making machine. As we spread the soil and it lay exposed, it quickly dried grey from its rich black, so I decided, for the worms’ sake, to irrigate that afternoon.
Didn’t have to. A mid-day shower soaked not only the thirsty garden soil, but the entire Island.
A fine festival.