Dad taught me to love the garden

Dad taught me to love the garden
                        

My father bequeathed to me my love of gardening. Though to be completely honest, I never saw Dad work in the garden.

There was a man he hired who came to our house a couple of times a week to till the soil, plant the seeds and remove weeds. He was a lovely man who could grow anything, especially anything Dad desired. By midsummer we were harvesting tomatoes, onions, greens and carrots. We children weren’t vegetables lovers, but we ate with gusto those veggies out of Dad’s garden. If we ate all the veggies on our plates, Dad would be so pleased that after dinner he’d take us out for ice cream.

One house we lived in growing up had a great, big yard with a huge garden hidden behind some pretty tall blue spruces. The top of that garden was devoted to asparagus plants that every year put out a huge harvest. Some of us kids loved that asparagus, some of us didn’t, but we all gobbled it down, particularly if our parents were watching. Ice cream is a powerful incentive.

But on occasion a lot of that asparagus disappeared on its way to the house. It happened that our garage also loved asparagus, and we were generous with our donations to that hungry car space. Years later a former neighbor told us that after we moved away, the new owners were cleaning out the basement and found an old coal chute stuffed with withered asparagus.

One of our last houses had a wonderful rear yard perfect for gardening. The soil was rich, the light was good, and the deer and the raccoons were plentiful. Though it was very gratifying to dig in the dirt and plant a beautiful garden, that’s about all the joy I got. It seemed the deer and raccoons came to visit quite often and always left well-fed.

That house loved that garden. It provided her with company almost every night. One stormy night, lightening lit up that back garden and revealed to us our visitors. There were deer, raccoons, skunks and groundhogs, all happily enjoying their evening meal together. It would have been so nice if they had left a bite or two for us.


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