My grandfather was a careful gardener. He prepared the soil months in advance of planting season. He meticulously laid out the straight rows, scooped out the dirt, and placed every seed exactly where he wanted. When he finished, the dirt was mounded around the site of each buried seed to hold the correct amount of water and nourish the seedling as it grew. Because I watched my grandfather work with seed and soil for so many years, I’ve always been a little perplexed by the way the sower