Garden Vows

Posted by Robert Dailey Aug 12, 2008

My dad had a garden for each season, although in southern Louisiana, there are only two real seasons: really hot and not so hot.

So our garden had tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash, cukes, watermelons, cantaloupes, garlic, onions, potatoes, and a few exotics dad tried out each year.

We were expected to weed, help haul and amend soil, build rows, plant, harvest, consign spent plants to the compost heap then help mama preserve and can the harvest.

We also had satsumas, lemons, oranges, pears, plums and figs. In the spring, we picked dewberries and a little later, blackberries.

I remember lazy fall afternoons lying under a Satsuma bush, pulling down the fruit, peeling away the thick, loose rind, pulling the ready-made slices apart and biting into each one, feeling the tart-yet-sweet pulp and juice hit the back of my throat.

Or in the winter, putting syrupy-sweet fig preserves on hot buttered homemade breakfast biscuits

Fresh blackberries were made into blackberry cobbler, or dumplings, and finally, jelly.

The last summer before I went away, I vowed I would never, ever, get caught in a garden again for the rest of my life.

Having said all that, I was just outside checking on my tomatoes. The plants have stopped producing and are basically spent. However, there are still some nice green shoots, so I’m layer rooting the shoots. In about a week, I’ll have some rooted clones (tomatoes clone very easily). I’ll snip these loose from the mother plant and plant the new clones, which I’ll then plant. That way, I’ll have some fall tomatoes.

Got to get some bush bean plants as well as some squash for the rest of my fall garden. Once it gets a little cooler I’ll sow some turnips, radishes and greens.

So much for my non-gardening vow.