In the garden
I think my daddy was a farmer at heart. He never made his living as an adult by farming, but it was in his blood. We always had a large garden at our house in Marietta, growing all kinds of fresh vegetables. (One result of this was that many of the vegetables I ate growing up were home grown and were wonderfully cooked by my mother, who was a great old style southern cook. I got spoiled. It is still hard for me to find green beans that I like cooked at a restaurant. They're just not like the fresh ones that my mother prepared.) All of us worked in the garden during the summertime.
One of the jobs that I was given pretty early on was plowing in the garden with a rotor-tiller. Not the most difficult job in the world, but hard enough, especially in the heat of summer. It goes pretty smoothly when the ground is fairly level and isn't too packed in. It can take some doing when the dirt has for some reason gotten hard and packed in and/or is uneven. But I did it enough to get fairly good at it. Julie and I bought a tiller when we were in Blairsville back in the early 80's. We have used it in several places over the years to prepare our own gardens, and somehow it is still running.
Last Saturday I cranked up the tiller and worke don part of the plot that will be our garden on the side of our house. We've grown in this area the last two summers and have added leaves and mulch to the ground to make it richer, so that now it is really good dirt and not too hard to plow. We got an area ready and Julie planted some carrots, cabbage, and broccoli for an early garden. One of the great smells in the world to me is freshly turned dirt in the spring. There is a pungency about it that is marvellous. And there is always the great mystery of life and food coming up out of the earth to nourish us. A marvelous mystery indeed, and a sign of God's creative power. A fruitful garden is not a given: it takes a lot of work, and the weather can turn sour on you or the insects not do their job of pollinating. ( something mysterious is killing honey bees in our country, a serious issue for our food production.) But there is nothing to beat eating fresh food from your own garden. Julie is a wonderful cook.
My father died when I was a week away from my 25th birthday. Working in the garden is one way I stay connected to him.
Jimmy
One of the jobs that I was given pretty early on was plowing in the garden with a rotor-tiller. Not the most difficult job in the world, but hard enough, especially in the heat of summer. It goes pretty smoothly when the ground is fairly level and isn't too packed in. It can take some doing when the dirt has for some reason gotten hard and packed in and/or is uneven. But I did it enough to get fairly good at it. Julie and I bought a tiller when we were in Blairsville back in the early 80's. We have used it in several places over the years to prepare our own gardens, and somehow it is still running.
Last Saturday I cranked up the tiller and worke don part of the plot that will be our garden on the side of our house. We've grown in this area the last two summers and have added leaves and mulch to the ground to make it richer, so that now it is really good dirt and not too hard to plow. We got an area ready and Julie planted some carrots, cabbage, and broccoli for an early garden. One of the great smells in the world to me is freshly turned dirt in the spring. There is a pungency about it that is marvellous. And there is always the great mystery of life and food coming up out of the earth to nourish us. A marvelous mystery indeed, and a sign of God's creative power. A fruitful garden is not a given: it takes a lot of work, and the weather can turn sour on you or the insects not do their job of pollinating. ( something mysterious is killing honey bees in our country, a serious issue for our food production.) But there is nothing to beat eating fresh food from your own garden. Julie is a wonderful cook.
My father died when I was a week away from my 25th birthday. Working in the garden is one way I stay connected to him.
Jimmy
posted by Jimmy at 6:43 PM
1 Comments:
I've read your blog a few times but today's post was especially meaningful to me. I too remember a family garden as I was growing up. We would sit under my Grandparents carport and shell peas or clean corn then my grandmother would cook the best cornbread to go with them. Today my parent's live in that house and when I visit I often think of our days in the garden. I created my blog a few days ago titled "Yard Therapy". I haven't posted anything yet but with the weather warming and the jonquils blooming I'm feeling like some good yard therapy can't be far away!
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