Learn Hardcore Finnish: Keväällä otamme kompostista multaa, täytämme ruukut ja viemme ne kasvimaalle. - In the spring we take soil from the compost, fill the pots, and carry them to the vegetable patch.

Literally, keväällä means “at (on) spring” and is used idiomatically for “in (the) spring”.
Finnish often uses a locative case instead of a preposition:

pöydällä = on the table
asemalla = at the station
keväällä = in spring

So the -llä here is not “on top of spring”, it’s just the standard way to say “in spring” / “during spring” in Finnish.

Why is the subject “we” not written? How do I know it means “we”?

The subject is shown by the verb ending instead of a separate word:

otamme – we take
täytämme – we fill
viemme – we take (something somewhere)

The ending -mme marks the 1st person plural (“we”).
Finnish normally drops the pronoun when it’s clear from the verb:

Me otamme = We take
Olemme = We are (no me needed)

So Keväällä otamme… is fully natural. You can say Me otamme, but it’s only needed for emphasis or contrast (e.g. “We, not they, take…”).

Why are all the verbs (otamme, täytämme, viemme) in the present tense if this sounds like a repeated, habitual action?

Finnish present tense covers both:

Actions happening right now, and
Actions that happen regularly / habitually.

Here the sentence describes something typically done every spring, so Finnish still uses present:

Keväällä otamme… = In spring, we (usually) take…

You don’t need a special “habitual tense”; the present + a time expression (keväällä) conveys that meaning.

What is the function of the case ending -sta in kompostista?

The ending -sta / -stä is the elative case, which often means “out of / from inside”.

komposti = compost
kompostista = out of / from (the) compost

It matches the meaning “take soil from the compost”, so kompostista is the natural form.

Why is multaa in the form multaa, not multa?

Mullan base form is multa (“soil, earth”), but here we see multaa, which is the partitive singular.

The partitive is used for:

Uncountable / mass nouns when you’re taking an indefinite amount
Objects of incomplete or unbounded actions

So:

otamme multaa ≈ “we take (some) soil / we take soil”
Saying otamme mullan would sound like you take one specific, whole lump of soil, which is odd.

With materials like vettä (water), maitoa (milk), multaa (soil), partitive is the default for “some X”.

Why is it täytämme ruukut, with ruukut in plural, instead of a partitive form?

Ruukut is ruukku (“pot”) in plural nominative.

For direct objects, Finnish uses:

Nominative plural (here: ruukut) when the action is complete and affects whole, countable items.
Partitive plural (ruukkuja) when the action is incomplete or the amount is indefinite.

Täytämme ruukut implies you are filling all the pots completely, a definite set of pots.
If you said täytämme ruukkuja, it could mean you are just in the process of filling pots, or some pots, not necessarily all of a known group.

Why is there a comma before ja in “…multaa, täytämme ruukut ja viemme…”?

Finnish punctuation allows a comma between clauses even before ja, more often than in English.

Here we have three coordinated clauses:

otamme kompostista multaa
täytämme ruukut
viemme ne kasvimaalle

Putting a comma between the first and second is very common:

Keväällä otamme kompostista multaa, täytämme ruukut ja viemme ne kasvimaalle.

You could also write it without that comma and it would still be correct:

Keväällä otamme kompostista multaa, täytämme ruukut ja viemme ne kasvimaalle.
(as given)

The pattern “clause, clause ja clause” is standard; Finnish is simply more permissive with commas before ‘ja’ than English.

What does ne refer to in viemme ne kasvimaalle?

Ne is the 3rd person plural pronoun meaning “they / them”.

Here, it refers back to ruukut (the pots):

täytämme ruukut – we fill the pots
viemme ne kasvimaalle – we take them to the vegetable patch

In Finnish, pronouns must agree in number:

sen for a singular thing
ne for plural things

Since ruukut is plural, we must use ne, not sen.

Why is it kasvimaalle and not just kasvimaa or kasvimaalleen?

Breakdown:

kasvimaa = vegetable garden / patch (literally “growing land”)
kasvimaalle = to the vegetable garden, with -lle = allative case (direction “to/onto”)

The allative -lle expresses movement towards a place:

pöydälle = onto the table
asemalle = to the station
kasvimaalle = to the vegetable patch

So viemme ne kasvimaalle = “we take them to the vegetable patch”.

You’d only see kasvimaalleen (“to his/her/their vegetable patch”) if you wanted to emphasize whose vegetable garden it is. Here, that detail isn’t mentioned, so the plain kasvimaalle is used.

What exactly is kasvimaa? Is it a compound, and how common is this type of formation?

Yes, kasvimaa is a compound noun:

kasvi = plant
maa = ground, land, soil
kasvimaa = “plant-land” → a vegetable garden / patch

Creating compounds like this is extremely common in Finnish:

omenapuu (apple tree) = omena
- puu
postilaatikko (mailbox) = posti
- laatikko
keittiöpyyhe (kitchen towel) = keittiö
- pyyhe

So kasvimaa is a normal, transparent compound meaning a piece of land where things are grown, usually vegetables.

How does consonant gradation show up in these words, or does it?

In this sentence, there’s not much visible consonant gradation, but we can note a couple of things:

ottaa (to take) – strong grade -tt-
- otamme keeps the strong grade (no change here)
viedä (to take, carry) – stem vie-; forms like viemme add -mme, no gradation

Words like komposti, multa, ruukku, kasvimaa, kevät don’t show consonant gradation in these specific forms. Gradation would appear in other cases or forms, for example (not in the sentence, but for reference):

ruukku → ruukun (genitive sing.) – kk → k (strong → weak)
kevät → kevään (genitive sing.) – t → d or disappears in many words

In the exact forms used in this sentence, you don’t really see gradation happening.

Could I say keväässä instead of keväällä to mean “in the spring”?

No, keväässä is not idiomatic for “in spring”.

keväällä (adessive) is the standard, fixed way to say “in (the) spring”.
keväässä (inessive: “inside spring”) sounds quite odd here and isn’t used for time in this case.

Time expressions often use specific locative cases in fixed ways:

keväällä = in (the) spring
talvella = in (the) winter
yöllä = at night
päivällä = in the daytime

So stick with keväällä for “in spring”.

Can the word order be changed, for example: Keväällä kompostista otamme multaa…? Would that change the meaning?

Yes, Finnish word order is flexible, and you could say:

Keväällä kompostista otamme multaa, täytämme ruukut ja viemme ne kasvimaalle.

The basic neutral order in the given sentence is:

Keväällä (time) + otamme (verb) + kompostista multaa (objects / complements)

Moving kompostista earlier (Keväällä kompostista otamme multaa…) slightly emphasizes “from the compost” — as opposed to from somewhere else. It doesn’t fundamentally change the meaning, but Finnish speakers use word order to highlight what is new or important information.

For a learner, the original order is the most straightforward and natural-sounding.