Spike is Best

One of the most pleasant things is to dig over last year's dried, brittle bean plants. As you turn the earth they break apart easily, their pieces mixing with the soil, and you can hear the worms saying thank you. Never pull up bean plants once they are spent, if you can help it. Leave them over winter. And if they have been pulled up, then let them sit there in the garden. Till them under come late winter/early spring. They make a really nice clean fodder for the dirt that won't interfere with the sowing of new things.

Another really pleasant thing is digging up the the garlic, just sprouting green, and moving them to another location in the garden. This is something you can get away with into early spring. The earth smell - wet but not too wet - earth that has not been turned for a year, in the sunlight, in the mild weather, and the faint odour of the garlic bulbs.

Another really pleasant thing is to brush against the thyme and hyssop, their green winter colour not looking too shabby at all, especially the thyme, and they still give off their pungent aroma; to brush the sage and rosemary, grey-green in their winter colour, and they still give off their pungent aroma; to clip the dead flower stalks of the oregano and wild bee balm, and they still give off their pungent aroma.