Gardening

For as long as I can remember, my grandma had a garden.  It was huge.  Being a mother to 9 kids, back in the olden days, having no money, the family lived off that garden.  I have memories of helping Grandma pick whatever was ripe and bringing it into the kitchen.  I have memories of chasing my cousins through the tall stalks and of seeing my grandma's windowsill lined with lots of tomatoes.

My other grandma had a garden as well.  She never let me get into that thing though.  But I do remember all the tomatoes she had on her counters and windowsills.  She always had yellow 'maters and I thought that was so cool.

My dad has always had a garden as well.  I grew up messing around in it, picking things I shouldn't, eating unwashed tomatoes, accidentally rubbing my eyes after picking habanero peppers and seeing a bowl full of tomatoes and cucumbers out the wazoo.

My daddy even grew horseradish and made his own (wearing a snorkeling mask)! 

Oh the memories I have of gardening.

When I got married, I started my own garden.

It just seemed like the normal thing to do.

I'm no where near the gardener that my grandmas or daddy are but I try.

Each year my garden has had ups and downs.

This year has been pretty good considering the hot dry weather we've been having.

Banana peppers, cucumbers, jalapenos, zucchini and tomatoes.

We even planted some yellow 'maters!

My secrets are:  human hair to keep the rabbits out, boy pee to keep the deer out (I let them pee around the perimeter), grass clippings and Preen to keep the weeds under control.

Three of my tomato plants are suffering from Blight and have not produced yet.  Their withered yellow leaves just stand there.  The stink bug has all but gobbled one of my zucchini plants (use SEVEN dust for that) but we were out of town and that little bug worked fast!

But I'm still managing to harvest about every 3 days and get a tray-full of goodies!