Robin says:

July 27th, 2005 at 7:43 am

I plant beets for my grandmother. She no longer can take care of a plant. On the days that I will see her, I go to my garden and harvest whatever is available to give to her. Those are the gifts that make her happy.

KJ says:

July 27th, 2005 at 12:41 pm

That is such a great memory! Thanks for sharing. When you have your own children, you’ll have to share that with them too.

My Grandfather had a garden and one of the items he grew was loofa plants. He showed me that gardening had more useful purposes other than just food items. He showed me that there was something we could grow in the garden to use in the bath. Go figure?

I agree that the rewards of gardening are plenty. A bumper crop is a perfect reason to get out and chat with your neighbors and share a little of your efforts with them.
KJ

Reade Adams says:

July 27th, 2005 at 2:38 pm

One 4th of July a number of years ago, I went out into the garden at midnight after a torrential rain to check my tomato bushes. They were doing fine. However, as I stepped forward into the tomato patch, my right foot sank into mud, which quickly sucked my leg in up to my knee. As I struggled to pull my leg from the mucky ooze, my sandal came off and remained somewhere deep in the ooze. The next day my husband and I dug a four-foot-square by two-foot-deep hole where my leg went down, but there was no sandal to be found. In fact, the sandal has never resurfaced, which leaves me wondering where it went and whether my entire body might have been swallowed if I had not pulled myself free. That was the last year I grew tomatoes.

patg says:

July 27th, 2005 at 7:26 pm

Offda!
A loofa is a sponge Sharon. See http://www.squeakymonroe.com/moreinfo.asp?partID=BA125

Nice to have some cool weather back again, don’t have to wear no silly hats.

Has anybody noticed how smart weeds are? Miss one and they will survive. Or how about smart weed? Breaks off at ground level so it can grow back again. Some kinda AI is my guess.

patg
ps. To all the kids out there…stay the hell out of the broccoli!

pss. Got two red tomatos, should be ready this weedend for blts. Maybe some fried green tomatos. The Big Boys are about the size of a baseball.

Ricecake says:

July 28th, 2005 at 12:20 pm

Luffa is a sponge yes, when used to bathe. The luffa plant is in the same family as gourds & cucumbers. Once mature, it is dried & skinned.
An informative link:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/hil/hil-120.html

Greengirl says:
Thank you. This link has only increased my curiosity for these little alien gourds. I’m beginning to think I need more raised beds.

Cara Johnson says:

July 29th, 2005 at 8:24 am

My mom’s garden seemed huge when I was a kid. I do remember being about 2 1/2 to 3 and telling my mom I needed to “look” at the garden. What I was really doing was eating ripe strawberries before dinner. She never did figure out I was doing that. All she knew was I didn’t want to eat dinner once I got in. Then the was th year when she planted 4 zuccini plants. Lasgana with zuccini instead of noodles was actually really good. Then there was the year she planted 13 tomato plants because she had 13 tomato stakes. First time I ever got sick of tomatoes and prayed for the animals to eat them.

Greengirl says:
I love your strawberry story, Cara! Thank you!

espe-2-be says:

July 29th, 2005 at 3:40 pm

I very fondly remember my mother’s garden. It was the house that she just sold. She had everything, flowers in the box by the front of the house, tomatos all along the back, a huge garden of veggies, waiting for me to pick. I used to beg her to mow her lawn so I could grab a carrot as I walked past the garden, to clean off as I walked past the hose, to eat when I was around the other side of the garage. She had the best rhubarb that I’ve ever tasted. I remember people coming over just to get bags and bags of rhubarb, chives, cucumbers and carrots. We never shared those tomatos though. Those were ours alone. We had a plum tree and apple tree.

Some day I’ll get a place with enough of a yard to grow some memories for my family…

Jim Miller says:

July 31st, 2005 at 9:31 am

I loved your story about your Dad. Part of my gardening love comes from remembering my Uncle, a nervous NY Woody Allen type, who seemed very much at peace in his garden. If I get nothing else in the Summer, it has to be tomatoes and basil. Yeshekoah! (which means “Good Job” in Yiddish.

mary ann says:

August 12th, 2005 at 4:01 pm

I remember my Grandma Rose’s garden. Hers was more fun than my dad’s, because I could just hang out there, under the fruit trees, listening to the bees hum. In my dad’s garden, I had to pull weeds. I think my grandma had fewer weeds because she mulched with leaves and grass clippings. My dad was not real big on mulch. I don’t remember weeding grandma’s garden, ever. I try to mulch, but I still pull a lot of weeds.

Sometimes, Grandma would let me help bury fresh fish carcasses and vegetable scraps under the fruit trees, a fertilizer akin to your grandfather’s manure tea. Mostly, I use composted organic manure and manure tea, but I think I’ll bury some fish this fall.

On very hot summer days, Grandma made jam on a table in the hot sun. She mashed up fruit with sugar, spread it on pie plates and set it under under a piece of glass, propped up at an angle. She covered the open sides with cheesecloth, and set the table legs in cans of water, so the ants couldn’t crawl up and get into the fruit. Strawberry jam made that way is indescribable.

My first granddaughter was born in January, and she already has her own watering can. Six months old, she’ll be over this weekend to practice watering the beans! She’ll be eating those, plus peas and potatoes this year from HER grandma’s garden. Just wait ’til next year when she plants her own seeds!