My Gardening History (pt. 2 of 4) Re-post

Looking back on my childhood/youth years at that one house, I realize I learned a LOT about gardening, just by watching my dad, and helping out in the family gardens each year. I learned how to plant with seeds, onion sets, seedlings and other young plants. I also learned how to put milk jugs over vulnerable transplants until the danger of frost was past and they were bigger. I also learned how to hoe weeds, and more weeds, etc. ;). I also learned how to harvest carefully. Some plants would yield another 'picking(s)' if you harvested carefully and didn't pull on the plant too hard when picking the beans or peas, lol. It was hard work, with the big garden plots, but our stomachs sure appreciated it!!

I also learned to LOVE the feel of dirt on my fingers and yes even under my fingernails. It was something I never really thought about until years later...it was my way of life.

Also, when you talk about gardens and love of soil, you gotta talk about other plants too besides veggies. Looking back I was very blessed by the 'boondocks' where we lived. We were WAY out in the country. Besides the veggie gardens we also had a peach tree, grapevines, a pear tree, apple tree, walnut trees, berries on our property, in addition to the woods that surrounded our house.

I will always remember the walks that Dad and I, and usually my brother would take through the woods, just enjoying the creations that the Lord has made. Wildflowers grew in abundance, along with weeds, vines, and berries. We even found a swinging vine in our woods.

As the years passed, and we moved from that house, things began to go downhill in more ways than one...but one thing for sure remained the same, Dad would always take a walk with my brother and I as his health permitted, and we'd always have a garden, albeit much smaller as the years passed and the houses that we lived in had much smaller lots.