GREEN THUMB : Rediscovering ‘Grandma’s Garden’

For me, the word garden evokes childhood memories of my grandmother. Her vegetable garden was the source of sumptuous summer meals, canned goods eaten throughout the year, vigorous exercise and the main summertime topic of conversation among neighbors.

As a child the garden provided my brothers and me with an opportunity to work in the dirt, the satisfaction of watching seeds transform into living plants and a favorite hiding place among the rows of corn.

I always thought that two factors were critical in recreating the garden of my youth: lots of land and lots of time. Since we lack both, I assumed that a vegetable garden would always remain only a fond childhood memory. Last summer, I discovered that I was wrong.

Hidden behind our detached garage, I found the perfect, sunny spot for a vegetable garden. This 10x15-foot plot of land was always an eyesore. The area is not visible from most of the back yard, so it quickly became filled with cracked old pots, extra fireplace wood and slabs of concrete left by previous residents. Since our main objective was to keep weeds from populating this non-landscaped area, we had covered the dirt with wood chips. But, in spite of the wood chips, unsightly weeds always managed to emerge. The area’s only redeeming quality was a six-foot-long, sidewalk-like slab of concrete in the center that provided a convenient place to stand or squat when gardening.

I realized that, with a little work, I could have a small scale version of my grandmother’s garden. Clearing the area of the junk and wood chips was fairly easy, but cultivating the soil was a different story. I filled dozens of buckets with rocks and pebbles and was left with a poor quality, sandy soil that would have been perfect for a cactus garden.

Just when I was about to give up hope of ever picking my own vegetables, I hit “pay dirt.” Inexplicably, about seven inches below the surface was a dark, loamy soil. Using a shovel, I turned the rich soil to the top and added amendment to produce a rich, workable soil.

With the hard work completed, my 3-year old daughter, Cynthia, and I launched into the more rewarding task of selecting and planting seeds. Most of my choices were based, not surprisingly, on recollections of my grandmother’s garden in West Virginia.

We planted three rows of corn (for eating and hiding), three long rows of green beans, a backdrop of sunflowers, a border of nasturtiums, a row of carrots and two hills of zucchini in two sections of the garden. We reserved a third section for cutting flowers, such as various daisies and dahlias. We also planted tomatoes and green peppers among the landscaped areas of our back yard.

I quickly learned that, even though I billed the garden to Cynthia as “our project,” I was possessive of it and particular about everything concerning its upkeep. In other words, it was my baby and I didn’t want to share. This called for the creation of a fourth garden plot that could be Cynthia’s alone. Since I spent hours in the garden over the summer, this proved to be an excellent way to keep us both happily occupied. Cynthia dug, filled large buckets with dirt, made mud pies and looked for bugs, while I cultivated, planted, weeded and watered.

We both enjoyed watching the garden grow. We woke every morning and rushed outside to see if any seeds had sprouted, plants had grown taller and fuller, flower blossoms had formed or flowers had turned to fruit.

At the end of the summer, we declared the garden a success. I was naive to think that three rows of green beans could provide meals all summer and leave enough for canning, just like Grandma used to do. But, even though we couldn’t enjoy the garden’s bounty all year long, all of the other richly satisfying elements of Grandma’s garden were realized, right behind our garage.

Small-Space Gardening

--Three six-foot rows of bush style green beans are not prolific. This year I’m planting climbing type beans, much better suited to small space gardening. I might even have enough to can a few jars.

--Southern California is not West Virginia. The few corn plants we planted provided only a few tiny, inedible ears of corn. I’m giving up fantasies of Cynthia hiding in the corn fields.

--The carrots grew well, but since they are bountiful and inexpensive in the markets all year long, this summer we’re using the space for something a little more exotic, like arugula, which I understand grows well in Southern California.

--Hose watering is inefficient and time consuming. This summer I’m buying soaker hoses to do the job.

--The sunflowers were a good idea, but planting them right along the garage didn’t provide enough sun. The resulting flowers were small and the plants had to bend over, almost to the ground, to reach the sun. We’ll plant sunflowers again this summer, but in a sunnier spot.