Saturday, April 24, 2010

Did You Ever Grow a Garden?

Here's another idea for your life story:
Did you grow a garden?  What did you have in your garden?
When I was young we always had a big garden.  My parents planted plenty that we good eat all summer long and that we could can to use during the winter.  They planted tomatoes, squash--zucchini, crookneck, and some winter squashes, onions, radishes, peas, beans, leaf lettuce, corn, carrots, and potatoes.  We had a rhubarb patch, two apple trees, two pear trees, two peach trees and an apricot tree.  As kids we were expected to help plant, weed, harvest and can all of the fruits and vegetables.  We were allowed to eat as many of the vegetables and fruits as we wanted to.  Nothing is quite as good as fresh peas eaten out of the pod while standing in the garden or a juicy tomato picked right from the vine and eaten immediately.  The fruit from the trees was a real treat, and even a stalk of rhubarb was a great sour treat. 
As an adult, I still love to grow things and eat what I have grown.  It is exciting to see the Swiss Chard get great early in the spring.  Watching peas starting to grow brings the hope for summer not being too far away.  The white blossoms on the strawberry plants signals delicious berries to soon follow.  The fruit trees filled with blossoms gives hope of a bountiful fruit crop later in the summer or fall.  
I have tried planting a lot of different things.  Some things grow pretty well and I enjoy the harvest.  Tomatoes are usually a good bet for a large crop.  Last year it was too hot and the tomatoes didn't start to grow until the weather started to cool off.  It was almost the end of summer before we started getting ripe tomatoes, but they kept producing past Thanksgiving.  Swiss Chard always seems to grow well.  I get a few peas although I don't know if I would ever get too many peas.  I can pretty easily eat the peas I grow fresh without even having to cook them.  I've tried different things and sometimes they do okay and sometimes they don't grow well.  Last year I actually grew a good size watermelon and it was delicious. You can read more about gardening experiences here.
Record the memories you have of the gardens throughout your life.  They are very much a part of your life. 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

we were out yesterday with daughter and son-in-law (they just bought a house with a large yard) and she brought up how they wanted to grow some veggies in the yard. She said she remembered us doing it. It's hot in phoenix not sure how they would grow but we're all going to try it.

Jenalee said...

Good luck with your garden. How wonderful that the memories of gardening makes your daughter want to grow one of her own. I'm sure you'll find some things will grow really well there in Phoenix. Search under Arizona Cooperative Extension Service for information on what to grow.