I planted my first organic garden, in the back yard of the first
house I rented, in the summer of 1969. This was also my first
experience with seriously compacted and depleted soil. The
previous tenants of this house had used the back yard as a place
to park their cars and burn/dispose of garbage. When I hand
tilled the soil, I also dug up pieces of broken glass, tin cans
and old door knobs. I grew a lot of veggies in this garden but I
was a bit disappointed that they did not look and taste as good
as the organic food I got at my mom's health food store.
Back then I did not fully realize that soil is home to an
incredible web of life and that it is the foundation of the
ecosystem.
On January 1, 1970 I decided to eat a totally raw,
lacto-vegetarian diet consisting of homemade yogurt, kefir,
sprouts and veggies from my garden. I continued eating raw for
three years then quit eating raw for a few decades but started
again eating mostly raw in 2008.
Throughout the seventies I lived in several places and generally
started a garden in the yard. Some of these gardens started with
compacted soil and poor results but they all improved over time
through the use of compost.