The year is 1975. The place is Hackneyville, Alabama. I limped in a walking cast to my great uncle’s garden.
I said, “Uncle Ren, that’s the most beautiful garden I have seen!”
The old man looked at me and said, “Son, you feed the ground… it feeds you.”
I scratched my head, as my great uncle, a grand old gentleman in blue coveralls, explained to me the great benefits of “green manure.” You see, he planted clover in the garden every fall, then disked it into the ground in January. He allowed the green plants to rot… this is called “green manure.” He would also cut horse or cow manure into the garden as well.
This lesson served me well in a very long agriculture career.