I remembered most of what my Grandma Twila taught me.
She was a teacher for more that 40 years and taught all of my family either first or second grade. She also lived thru the terrible depression, where her large family (14 brothers and sisters) took in another family to survive those lean years. At the age of 18 she traveled by train to Kansas to earn her teaching degree. At the age of 85, she didn't have a big garden anymore, she mixed her vegetables in with her flowers in her many flower beds around her home.
The oast two years I have mixed my vegetables in with my flowers.
This has saved me a lot of back pain and hard labor.
Here are a few photos of our delicious harvest.
Thehubs loves radishes!
He had fresh picked radishes daily from March thru the middle of June.
We always had our peas, onions and radishes planted by Valentine's Day.
Our potatoes were always planted by St. Patrick's Day and all according to the moons phase.
She loved her Farmer's Almanac.
I remember her using every space she had, rotating her crops so that something was always growing.
This year I tried hard to use her experience and knowledge to grow food that had no chemicals from seeds harvested the year before. She always said that if you planted the seeds from the year before they would be more heat and drought tolerant.
The new potatoes and peas were delicious!
I picked three good harvests from my small patch of peas.
I've planted Dill to attract butterflies, basil, thyme and chives to dry and freeze.
The marigolds keep the bugs away.
We have enjoyed fresh ripe tomatoes daily since June 4th.
My favorite is to walk out and pick a red tomato, rinse it with the hose, then sit and it on the patio with nothing but a salt shaker.
My Dad was a great gardener. We grew up with apple trees, cherry trees, peach trees, walnut trees, and pecan trees. There was always something good growing outside.
He also planted grapes, blueberries, and blackberries. Yum!
And each spring his big tiller would start our garden filled with corn, green beans, peas, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes and so much more. He would get home from his job as a welder and set his lunch box down on our porch and go right to his garden.
He also hunted, so we had a freezer full of deer, quail, raccoon, and even crawdads and turtle as well as spoonbill, crappie, bass, catfish and walleye fish.
We also raised cows, pigs and rabbits over the years.
He was also a survivor of the great depression.
That generation spent very little on food.
I can even remember my grandma taking the left over vegetables from a meal and putting them into her vegetable soup container in her freezer to be used later in vegetable soup. It was so good!
Do you have any garden memories of times past?
Linking up with Jemma over at the
I few up in a suburb of Dallas and we never had a vegetable garden. We did have beautiful old fashioned flowers though. My mom put out birdseed on the ground and all kinds of little critters came up to eat. Those are my garden memories.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you shared this at the garden party. :)
I do! We always had a big garden on the farm and when I finished whatever weeding I had to do I would go help my cousins weed their garden. It was much bigger than our own. My Uncle (their dad) would sit on the fence and read poetry to us while we worked away! lol Fond memories. xo Diana
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather was a farmer and grandmother took care of the big garden. Wish I could go back in time.Back then there were two ways to life ( the right way or the wrong way no in between.
ReplyDeleteIsn’t that wonderful what a wonderful past you had with your father and grandmother! My grandparents had a veg. garden on their tiny lot in Detroit and managed to put up canned veges from it. My parents grew up in the Great Depression too and my Dad was especially affected by it. He loved to go out and fish every so often like he did as a child. I had a veg. garden at a home we had years ago that had a nice big flat yard full of sun and it did great. I kind of miss being able to do that but my home sits on a heavily shaded yard now. Thank you for sharing your garden love and family stories and for joining our Garden Party.
ReplyDeleteI do. One of my favourite things was rhubarb. We used to sit on the back step with a stick of rhubarb and a bowl of sugar. Not sure I would want to do that these days but I have some lovely memories.
ReplyDeleteMy garden is almost exclusively vegetables in a floating raised bed garden and in containers on my cabin's deck. Things are really starting to produce right now. Will be making dill pickles this week. - Margy
ReplyDeleteDazee, what a cute name. I loved your garden story of your grandma. How clever. I like that you get such wonderful crops mixed in the flowerbeds. My daughter would love your blog. I am too lazy to garden most times. I did see in Mexico that beans were climbing up the corn on hilly garden spots. The bus guide said they plant together. Your dad sounds like he was an awesome gardener also. You learned from your folks . The taste of a sun warmed and wipe off tomato can't be beat. Blessings to you and yours, xoxo, Susie
ReplyDeleteThose tomatoes look yummy.
ReplyDeletemy great grandparents survived the civil war, my grandmoethr was born in 1886, and had 7 children, my dad one of them. he was born in 1913, they all made it throught the depression and daddy raised me to be a pinch penny....
ReplyDeleteSounds like great success to me. Isn't it wonderful to remember what our elders have taught us?
ReplyDeleteGlad I dropped by tonight.
Hugs,
Laura of Harvest Lane Cottage