Grannie's Garden

Posted by Sally Odum Jun 2, 2007

"Sally,

I read your column that featured Mike from West Michigan who wanted to share gardening with his children. Not only was that story so heartwarming, but it brought back memories of my own childhood as well as my grannie’s.

My grannie was born in 1914 in Ruther Glen, Va. She was the youngest of 10 children, and her favorite sister, Goldie, had a green thumb. My grannie remembers taking the train down to Richmond to visit Goldie and spend the entire summer. She would often times write her momma and poppa to see if she could extend her vacation because she enjoyed Goldie’s company and garden so much. Goldie was known in that area for growing the best tomatoes, and flowers. My grannie still smiles when she speaks about those summers. They would eat tomatoes right out of the garden like apples, and squeal with delight as the juice ran down their chins to their necks.

My grannie passed on the gardening bug to me. Growing up in Northern Virginia, finding time and room for a garden was tough, but my grannie and I managed. She lived with us growing up, and still lives with my parents. We made a small garden, planting tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon and bell peppers. I was ecstatic to watch the garden grow before my little eyes, and would check on it every day. One late summer day, as my grannie, mom and I were sitting on the porch swing, we saw something out of the corner of our eye. A squirrel had managed to get a small cantaloupe out of the garden and was pushing it down the hill. We died laughing and joked that the squirrel would be surprised when it found out it wasn’t a large nut after all! Needless to say, between the deer, squirrels and bunnies, I had no garden by the end of the summer. No matter how much fencing we put up, we couldn’t keep the hungry critters out. That didn’t deter my grannie though. Instead she gave me an ancient gardening encyclopedia (which I still have) and we started growing flowers.

Now that my grannie is 93, I do the gardening for her, and even bring fresh cut flowers to her house. My husband and I just bought a darling cape cod in Fredericksburg, Va, and we are already planning the garden. My grannie insisted we put up a good fence!" "...I plan on taking her out in the wheelchair so we can plant another garden together. Perhaps by late summer, we will have big, juicy tomatoes to eat off the vine and squeal as the juice runs down our chins!"

~Submitted by Aimee Massey, Virginia

Aimee:

Thank you so much for sharing your memories! The mental image of the ambitious squirrel pushing the canteloupe is hilarious. That would make a perfect inspiration poster with the title "High expectations" or "Reach for your dreams" or "If you think you can - you CAN" or something. My grandmothers gardened too. I think my favorite memory is the table all spread out with a variety of dishes of delicious vegetables. That's because they were so plentiful from the garden.

Best Wishes,

Sally