Gardening - A Family Tradition
Today I had a visit from my mom - and what an enjoyable visit it was. Among all the other things that moms and daughters talk about we started talking about our gardens.
As my gardening buddy these past few seasons my mom has been "gardening along" with me. Almost everything that I plant, she plants. It's the best way for her to teach me what works and what doesn't. Naturally hers grow better and more productively but it's fun to share our triumphs and aggravations - like last summer when my then-puppy decided to eat all the leaves off of the squash plants at her house (and the cucumbers and the melons and the zucchini at mine!).
Even though I've only started gardening in earnest since I've had my own house with my own backyard, gardening and farming has been part of my family from the beginning.
As a child, some of my favorite memories involve being outside and particularly being in the garden.
My grandfather, who came from a large farm family in the Piedmont of North Carolina, had a beautiful one acre garden, when I was a child. He and my grandmother had decided to sell their 100 acre farm in the mountains and move closer to their family. One acre was a compromise but he certainly made the most of it. At seventy some odd years old he would go out and daily tend to his garden. And what a sight it was.
I remember visiting in the summer and running up and down the hill on which his garden gently sloped. I would trot past the blueberry bushes and the green house that over looked row after row of peas, peppers, tomatoes, and every other delicious thing he could grow. I'd scurry back up the hill along the lines of blackberries and dash under the magnolia trees and run through the center to see what he was doing and get a closer look at the grape vines that grew on the other side of a mossy ditch.
The dirt was red and the air was crisp and it was a five year old's heaven. I spent countless hours sitting on the tail gate of his truck happily shelling peas with my grandmother. I still love peas probably more than any person reasonably should. It was a fun time and a sweet time.
To me, I think that's why gardening is important. It connects us not only to the land and our present world but to our past and our history.
It's fun to think of those warm sunny memories especially with the freezing rain we've been having. I'm looking forward to whatever warm up we get and hopefully tilling up in the garden and getting ready to plant.
Do you come from a family of gardeners or farmers?
What's your favorite gardening memory?
Until next time,
Rebecca
As my gardening buddy these past few seasons my mom has been "gardening along" with me. Almost everything that I plant, she plants. It's the best way for her to teach me what works and what doesn't. Naturally hers grow better and more productively but it's fun to share our triumphs and aggravations - like last summer when my then-puppy decided to eat all the leaves off of the squash plants at her house (and the cucumbers and the melons and the zucchini at mine!).
Even though I've only started gardening in earnest since I've had my own house with my own backyard, gardening and farming has been part of my family from the beginning.
As a child, some of my favorite memories involve being outside and particularly being in the garden.
My grandfather, who came from a large farm family in the Piedmont of North Carolina, had a beautiful one acre garden, when I was a child. He and my grandmother had decided to sell their 100 acre farm in the mountains and move closer to their family. One acre was a compromise but he certainly made the most of it. At seventy some odd years old he would go out and daily tend to his garden. And what a sight it was.
I remember visiting in the summer and running up and down the hill on which his garden gently sloped. I would trot past the blueberry bushes and the green house that over looked row after row of peas, peppers, tomatoes, and every other delicious thing he could grow. I'd scurry back up the hill along the lines of blackberries and dash under the magnolia trees and run through the center to see what he was doing and get a closer look at the grape vines that grew on the other side of a mossy ditch.
The dirt was red and the air was crisp and it was a five year old's heaven. I spent countless hours sitting on the tail gate of his truck happily shelling peas with my grandmother. I still love peas probably more than any person reasonably should. It was a fun time and a sweet time.
To me, I think that's why gardening is important. It connects us not only to the land and our present world but to our past and our history.
It's fun to think of those warm sunny memories especially with the freezing rain we've been having. I'm looking forward to whatever warm up we get and hopefully tilling up in the garden and getting ready to plant.
Do you come from a family of gardeners or farmers?
What's your favorite gardening memory?
Until next time,
Rebecca
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