We cleaned off Granny’s garden this week. It was bittersweet knowing she no longer needs it.
Corie wants to plant green beans in the garden and share them with everyone in the family. I hope to plant the rest of the area full of old maids (zinnias) because Granny loved them.
There are two small gardens right beside one another at Granny’s. The upper one never does any good and we don’t plan to plant anything there.
The year Pap died he had already planted spring vegetables in the little gardens. We helped Granny take care of the plants that year and every year after that we planted the gardens for her.
Just after Pap died she was able to go out and work in the gardens a bit by herself, but as the years went by she was relegated to mostly sitting in a chair and watching us. She hated not being able to garden as she always had, but she loved watching us and watching the plants grow. And of course she loved eating what it produced.
There was a handful of onions still growing from some we planted for her last fall. Before Matt tilled up the area I pulled them up. They were on the puny side so I brought them home and replanted them in one of our raised beds.
Last night’s video: Attacked by a BIG Rat & Sweet Memories of Hog Killing Day and Good Eating!
Tipper
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There is something so special about carrying on a garden’s legacy. Zinnias are the perfect choice—they are so resilient and bring so much color with so little fuss. I’ve always found that the planning phase is where I feel closest to the garden, especially when figuring out the spacing for new rows of beans or flowers. I actually use a set of custom calculators I built at Garden Calculators to make sure I’m making the most of my soil and space. It helps take the stress out of the prep work. Best of luck with the new planting season!
That’s a sweet photo. Hope the old maids grow high and beautiful for you all this year and Corie gets tons for beans. Always look forward to the girls and your videos. They make my day. Thanks☺️
Hi, Tipper! It was so good seeing Granny’s dear, sweet face. I know her gardens were hard for y’all to deal with.
Pam in Virginia
Granny would love knowing her family kept her garden growing and nothing is more traditional than zinnias. There is a new one from Johnny’s Selected Seeds named ‘Linen’. It is a beautiful pastel that I may try in my garden this year.
well Corie will just have to try out different things to plant in the upper garden. Marigolds and zinnias will about grow in concrete. she likes herbsz so she can plant a permanent herb garden. peas and legumes will enrich the soil and are good to eat! bet it is is a bit sad
That is bittersweet. Very sweet way to remember her, planing green beans and zinnias there. Love to all of you, I know it is hard not having her this year.
Look at that radiant smile on Granny’s face in that photo. I’m so thankful you are planting green beans and zinnias in her garden. Her favorite vegetable and one of her favorite flowers- so fitting and honoring! I’m sure working her garden is very bittersweet. She would be so happy to know you are doing so. I pray you have an extra abundant harvest this year.
I think it is so wonderful that you and your girls will always be there to take care of Granny and Pap’s home. I know it had to have been enormously comforting for Granny in her last days knowing that you and your family will continue to care for her home. Granny and Pap will always be with you all in spirit!!!!!
I think this will be precious and Granny would love it.
“There are two small gardens right beside one another at Granny’s. The upper one never does any good and we don’t plan to plant anything there….”
Lord forgive me, but that sounds like old Dr. Archie Campbell from Hee Haw:
“The upper one never does any good…”
“Well, my advice would be, stop planting there!”
What a wonderful way to honor Granny! So precious!
What a sweet person Corie is. So thoughtful to want to plant green beans for the family
Yes, the bittersweetness of remembering those no longer with us can have us laughing and crying at the same time as we take that walk down memory lane and share stories of them. It was wonderful to see Granny again in the picture you shared. I miss her singing with Paul too. Green beans and old maids – a wonderful way to remember and honor Granny. Warm hugs and love to each of you in Wilson Holler.
What a great way to honor Granny Wilson! It was good to see Granny smiling and happy in her garden.
God bless Wilson Holler!
Mom was 73 years old when she died in an auto accident with Dad. They could both outwork any of their children, especially in the garden. Mom broke her wrist a few years before she died and had a cast up to her elbow. The pain she experienced was nothing compared to the fact that the cast would not allow her to work in the garden. I found her crying and almost on the verge of a mental breakdown several times that spring and summer. I can only imagine how she and Granny felt as they watched the family do a job they would have enjoyed doing.
Shirl, I can understand your Mom feeling that way. I am 72 and ate up with arthritis and can no longer do many things I once did for myself. I was blessed to be able to do pretty much anything I wanted to do all of my adult life without having to ask for help. Yesterday my son had to change the oil in one of my cars. I can no longer get down on the ground. I have never paid anyone to change the oil since I bought my first car. Not only a garden, but just no longer being able to do the things I once could do for myself does cause me mental problems. This plus the death of my wife does cause me to have problems with depression. I saw my Daddy sit on a turned up block of firewood and cry because he was not able to help me after his heart attack cut his own firewood. I told him I was just paying him back for all the things he did for me when I was a kid. If I can sit on my stool I drag around with me I can still do things, I dug holes this week with hand held post hole diggers while sitting on this stool. I was sore the next day!
My mother used to plant Rooster Combs. Do you or have you ever planted them and if so did they do good for you. I don’t know the scientific name for them. All I know is they are a pretty flower. They were fuzzy and water would bead up in silver droplets on the blooms.
I don’t but that is one of Corie’s favorite flowers 🙂
And Corie is one of my favorite flowers!
Mama had those when I was a child. I grew up in the Richmond, Virginia suburbs and Mama had beautiful flowers when I was growing up.
Memories to cherish always of Granny, Pap and the gardens. I love Corie is planting Green Beans to share with family and close friends because she is carrying on Granny’s legacy of her love for green beans. I love so many have sent you Zinnia seeds and now you’re planting them to honor Granny. I have no doubt both gardens with burst out in a bountiful harvest and beauty.
You picked the right word, Tipper; bitter in the parting, sweet in the memory and keeping a tradition alive. As we know, the bitter grows less and the sweet more but the bitter never quite goes entirely away on this side. Just your all’s gathering to work together lays a balm over the sadness. And the ‘old maids’ will be a bright spot and a good memory this summer. They are so bright and colorful they will lift your all’s spirits again.
There are several hundred acres of farmland around my little piece parade and even though I was so sick from some residual chemo meds, my heart did a little flip when I heard the tractor in the field, planting and smelled that rich black dirt being turned over. I went to bed last night with that sound and around 3 this morning I stirred just enough to hear the rain tapping on my window. Perfect timing for those little seeds that just got planted. I, too, have bought many varieties of Zinnias to plant for Granny this year. I have many memorial plants and trees in my yard and now Granny will be among them. I take nightly walks (weather permitting) and stop for a moment at each spot that serves as a memory for someone dear to me that I miss so dearly. Granny became such a special lady to me through your videos and I know she’s looking down and smiling at you all bustling around her yard, still caring for it as a tribute to her♡
Hey Miss Tipper I haven’t posted in a while but I read the blog everyday! Love seeing the pic of Granny. I know she must be SO GREATLY missed! Love and big hugs to all
Richard
How sweet of you to plant old maids all over Granny’s yard. After moving into an apartment, my mama still misses her flower gardens so much. She would weed them and just enjoy them every day. I can’t imagine how much you miss her. After seeing her photo with you on this post, I miss her too—especially her interviews with you and her singing with Paul. The flowers, and the green beans Corrie plants, will be sweet reminders of her all summer long. Take care.
I’m just certain Granny is looking down upon her family with a great big beautiful smile on her face and young eyes twinkling in delight knowing you all remember and love her so much even now! To plant the green beans and zinnias is just a beautiful tribute to the Wilson family matriarch and Corie must have a beautiful soul like her precious grandmother! I hope her green beans and zinnias almost reach the sky!!! Much love and many blessings to you all. When I’m gone MAYBE somebody will plant a rock or two, but I don’t look for much after I’m gone…
Hey Sadie, I figure the closest thing to flowers someone would plant for me when I’m gone would be bitter weeds and wild onions! I will have to be buried, buzzards won’t have me.
Good morning, Tipper and Acorns. I enjoyed yesterday’s video. It is so important to save the oral histories of our elders. I also think it is important to document children, so they don’t forget the special and seemingly ordinary events of their formative years. I can remember all the way back to being a year old. Not many people can do that. It is so sweet of Corie to want to plant beans in Granny’s garden. I’m going to plant some Zinnias for Granny too. My Little Granny (Mama’s Mama) had a big row of them in her garden when I was little. They were taller than me. I keep everyone here and up Wilson Holler in my prayers. TY all for your prayers for us. I have witnessed the blessings from them. I love y’all.
I sure do miss Granny!
Hello, I am a new member from North Eastern Pennsylvanisa.Love reading your stories with my morning ☕ coffee. I know your Grandmother appreciates you all tilling the good earth and planting for her..My Mom will be 97 still going strong very active,but no gardening we bring potted plants to herIn her tiny apartment she has over 22 plants ,not including 3 cases of flowers for Easter. My brother put outside her window pane a potted tomato plant she can go out water it and watch it grow.Yeas ago growing up we lived on a small farm 6 kids and our parents.Onevis with Jesus now. You have a lovely day and same to your Grandmother
Judy welcome to the Blind Pig! Granny was actually my mother 🙂 She passed away in January. Please continue to read my posts. We are all happy to have you here!
Judy, welcome to the Blind Pig & Acorn family. Tipper and her family are a blessing to us all. I still enjoy going back and reading old posts….8 years worth! And then we have the joy of watching the family as they grow their gardens on the North side of the mountain on
You Tube…Celebrating Appalachia. I grew up in the city but have always loved playing in the dirt. Now live on an acre in rural town in Northern Michigan. No family around but this community is wonderful. How wonderful to have your Mother and surround her with all those plants. Blessings
Beautiful post. That God there are people in our lives that give us these emotions. It hurts that they are not with us but also great joy that knowing Granny is with the Lord and all Pap.
Tipper
I have been working on getting a space ready for a small garden! I want to plant Green Beans, a few Cherokee Tomatoes, Yellow Squash and Zucchini, and Acorn Squash.
We have trouble growing Tomatoes they just don’t do very well and I am like your husband I Love a Good Tomato Sandwich especially that first one from the garden!
I will be 73 April 25 and my husband just turned 84 so it’s getting harder for me to work out in the yard like I use to! When I read about Granny not be able to before she passed it made me sad to think that I won’t be able to also in a few years because I just love seeing things grow and like Granny Zinnias are also my favorite. I miss seeing Granny and I know you all do to!
Praying for you all! I just Love to read your Emails and watch your YouTube shows.
Love Joanna
good morning, great to see a picture of Granny, God bless you friends, yesterday was my brother’s service, thank you for praying bfor my brother, God bless you, it’s great that Corie wants to keep up Granny’s tradition of green beans, God bless her
So sorry to hear that your brother has passed. Prayers or you & the family.
precious memories.
To me seeing things that where loved or special to my dearly loved family members is always bittersweet. I just looked at the extended weather forecast. Today’s high temperature is supposed to be about 75 degrees, next week the daytime temperature are forecast to be 88-95 degrees with no rain in site. I cut my grass yesterday afternoon and was covered in dust. At the first of the month, upstate SC was in an extreme drought, only one category away from the worse. We had less than one inch of rain Easter weekend. This is only the middle of April, what will the hot summer months be like, if the weather does not change? People have their gardens plowed but I don’t see anyone planting in the dust of their gardens.
I truly hope you don’t have another year of drought, Randy! It’s hard to read about how dry it is near you. I know you have lived in the same area for your whole life. Do you ever remember a time period where things were so dry like this or is it quite unusual? Praying you get rain! We are supposed to have a bout of three days of rain early next week with the chance of some severe weather too.