Gardening 101...33º

Gardens can't survive without water, good soil, fertilizer and lots of hard work...Amending the soil with fertilizer, leaves, straw etc. makes it good...Growing up on a farm where there was no shortage of "fertilizer" every spring or fall, my dad would spread a load on mom's garden and she would be one happy gardener...He would work the aged manure into the ground and she would plant, tend and harvest...My mom's garden was her "paradise," she went there to be in her own little world, to work through the everyday problems...She loved long straight rows, weed free and little children, when allowed in had to stay on a path...It was mostly look, but don't touch or step outside the path...I can picture her now, wearing a broad brimmed hat and a long sleeved, mans, button up shirt.

I think she learned gardening from her mother and of course grew up in a time when most people had a family garden, their survival depending on it...A story I remember about Grandma Parkin and gardening, it goes like this...In her later years, after Grandpa passed away, she continued to garden on the outskirts of Bountiful, Utah on their small lot...Fertilizer wasn't as available as on a farm and Grandma Parkin, being a "genteel" lady, would ask her sons to please bring her a load of "chewed hay."

Now I come along, who didn't even want to be a gardener, but somehow fell into it and I'm not "genteel" and have a deal with our friends, that they can put animals in our small pasture if they will furnish me with manure...Well over the weekend Tim brought two loads of manure and dumped them in our backyard(pasture)...So when most people are trying to get rid of the sh__ in their back yard, I'm one happy gardener with a huge pile of sh__, that should last me about 5 years!...Hugs to All...OWAV:)

I call it black gold.