Granny’s cut flowers
My memories of growing up in Southwest VA are very similar to those of you who have submitted comments. We had a small farm of about 20 acres and we children were required to help with gardening and preserving food until we left home. We only bought things we could not grow, such as coffee. We occasionally had Kool Aide but never soft drinks or dopes as some people called them. We rarely had candy unless it was homemade. We usually had two cows, and my mother sold milk and butter, with no permit required in those days. We had two or three pigs each year, and those were our meat. The main things in our garden were green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, corn, peppers, squash, onions, cucumbers. We had apple, peach, and cherry trees. Blackberries were available on a nearby property. Pick your own, of course. We children had to help with the whole process, from planting to canning or freezing. One non-food item my mom always insisted on was a long row of different kinds of flowers running clear across the garden. My Dad would grumble and say that flowers aren’t food. But they were definitely food for Mom’s soul. She would put vases of flowers on the table where we ate. They brightened our home and lifted our spirits. And I think Dad secretly liked the flowers, too. I still love having fresh flowers in my home.
—Brenda B. Lee
I enjoyed Brenda’s memories of growing up in southwest VA. I love how her mother planted the flowers each year to feed her soul and beautify their table. I’m excited about the flowers I’m growing this summer and find myself wanting to slip off and look at them two or three times a day.
Last night’s video: Staking Tomatoes & Matt’s Going to get a Straddle of the Air Conditioning Vent.
Tipper
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I enjoyed today’s post about Granny’s flowers so much and all the wonderful comments. It took me back to my own childhood to my sweet grandmother’s yard. I remember it distinctly. On the front, sunny side of the house, Grandma had an abundance of big mop head dahlias blooming and along the paling fence was a row of big, tall sunflowers that seemed to reach to the sky. I remember the morning glories that trailed to the rooftop on strings she had stung on her long back porch. My brother and I enjoyed so much going out there in the mornings and popping them before they opened up. Grandma was a jewel. She never as much as scolded us. It was as if she had put them out there for our entertainment. That same porch is where we spent many happy hours with her, helping her snap green beans, shell peas, shuck corn, and churn the milk, to name a few. She was the kindest, sweetest grandmother anyone could ask for. Thanks for bringing back such wonderful memories!
I do not stake my tomatoes but put cages I made out of concrete reinforcement wire around them. The cages also keep deer from eating my tomatoes. Now I am going to rub it in, I have just finished eating and have been eating tomato sandwiches for the last week made with my own homegrown early girl tomatoes. Yes I use Duke’s mayonnaise, it would be a crime for a true blue blood southerner to use any other brand.
I have got to tell this and since Tipper is proud of her Silver Queen corn I hope she will get a kick out this. This morning I was at a produce where the owners sell the produce they grow. There was a lady and her adult daughter there and it was quite obvious they were not raised around here. They were looking at the produce lady’s corn field that has already tasseled and will be ready to pick next week. This lady along with her daughter asked if this was stalks of okra (not okree) and when would it be ready to pick. I almost keeled over from holding my breath to keep from laughing out loud in their faces. I know, I’m a sorry old cuss.
While flowers may not be commonly thought of as food, they do feed the bees which are important pollinators. Also, there are many beautiful flowers that are edible. Therefore, serving the dual purpose of feeding both the body and the soul.
Flowers are food for the soul indeed! If you want to put a smile on someone’s face, take them some cut flowers, especially the sick and shut ins. You’ll be smiling as much as they are. 🙂
My grandparents were flower growers and food growers. My parents grew mostly perennials, but my mother loved Impatiens. Every year she grew them in large pots and as borders, and she always planted them too close together, which caused them to grow upward reaching about 2-3 feet. Myself, I prefer the tall cutting flowers, but I also love Impatiens, which maybe one of the most colorful and long blooming shade plants. So pretty! I miss gardening, and I miss them all.
Tipper, it’s not the same of course because I grew up in New England. But we used to visit my uncle and aunt’s cottage on Little Diamond Island in Portland, ME. My uncle grew fabulous flowers and every day, there were carefully placed vases of flowers in almost every room, and of course, there was always a sumptuous bouquet on the dinner table which complimented the lobsters. 🙂
Even though I grew up in a small rented house, with only a hand pump for water and an outside bathroom, we had a big yard with plenty of room for a garden and a few animals. It was one of our chores to keep the corn weeded all summer, and I did not enjoy that job. We had a milk cow named Lucy—and we all loved her—and the yummy milk, butter and ice cream she provided. We also always raised some kind of animal for food each year—whether it be a calf or a hog or some chickens. Some years, my dad would kill a deer and squirrels. I remember well, my parents working long into the night, cutting, processing, and wrapping meat from butchering. We knew places to go gather apples, pears, walnuts, blackberries and wild strawberries. We were poor, but we didn’t even know it—and we always had plenty of good food. My mama loved flowers too. She always planted some in the front yard in two little planters that my dad made from turning old tires inside out—and we had a magnificent snowball bush in the back yard. Mama also planted a row of marigolds down the side of the garden. We said grace, and all sat around the kitchen table to eat together each evening. I still feel like providing food and cooking meals for my family is one of the most important ways I show them love.
Ah this post brings sweet memories. I grew up on a farm and my folks were very self-sufficient with food items. Mom always had a huge garden and as a young child, I helped with weeding…But the delightful row was her long line of colorful zinnias. I cherish these memories, especially since my parents have passed on. Thank you for the post.
My mom was big on growing flowers too. She planted flowers all around the house outside and inside plants as well. She loved the beauty that flowers brought into her life. She grew vegetables gardens too, but after all us kids got grown and married off, she put all her focus on growing only flowers. Even after my dad got sick and had to be moved to the VA nursing facility, she took him flowers every day. Later she sold the house to move to a senior residence. After my dad passed she help start a gardening project at the senior residence so all the other seniors who loved flowers could be actively planting and caring for their own flowerbeds. When she was no longer able to go out to help tend to the flowerbeds, she had plants in her apartment to care for. I so miss seeing her and talking to her each day. Every time I see beautiful flowers I think of my mom.
Flowers in and around the house are about much more than beauty. Just exactly what would likely be hard to put in words. To me, BP&A is like that. There are flowers, the subjects, then there are all the things they bring to mind. Today Brenda reminded me of my days working in SW Va, back in the 1970’s. It is beautiful and intriguing country with history and beauty tucked away in unexpected places. I got lost in the fog there, saw a man plowing with a mule for the last time (for me) and had a few vehicle adventures. And in doing genealogy I found the folks in the county courthouse to be so friendly, helpful and just all-around nice.
This is off of today’s subject, but Brenda has described the past country life for some of us. I have just read an older post titled Old Dresses and the comments that went along with it. Some of the comments had to do with the way women and others dressed when going to church back in the older times Brenda wrote about. I have went to an old fashioned country church all my life and remember the time when all females of any age wore decent dresses and the men would wear suits or dress pants and shirts to church for the morning and evening Sunday services. On Wednesday night the men would wear their best pair of overalls or a newer pair of the “Dickes” style of work pants. Many of the men wore hats that would be taken off before they stepped inside the church doors. Nowadays I think some would dress more decent if they were going to Walmart. I reckon pants and tee shirts are more decent than the low cut short dresses. I think back then people had more Respect for church and what church is suppose to be about. I try to look at the big picture and think at least they came to church.
My family were poor when I was growing up. Daddy planted a large garden and I’m the oldest, so I was expected to help plant, hoe and reap the vegetables. My four other siblings helped some but weren’t expected to do as much as I was. He planted silver queen corn, and he also would try other types of corn, but silver queen was our favorite. I helped mom put up the vegetables and fruits (apples, peaches, plums, cherries, strawberries). She canned most of them but when I was around nine or ten, she purchased a large freezer and put a lot of the harvest in it. We never ate out except to eat at my aunts and uncles houses occasionally. My mother cooked everything we ate. I went to my first McDonalds at age 16 while dating my husband. The house we moved to in 1956 was ten years old (I was 7) and on two acres. The people who had built it had planted many flowers and flowering shrubs and trees. I remember that the property was so green. The growing time in northeastern Ohio is about three months. Daddy planted usually at the end of May, and we harvested in August. This is where I developed my love of the land and growing my own food. I also loved flowers and when my husband and I moved from Charlottesville, Va and bought this property near Appomattox, Va in 2015 it was a new house and had nothing planted on it. I enjoyed planning with my husband what kind of trees and other shrubs and flowers we would plant. Today, nine years later the property is full of flowering trees, bushes and flowers. I mostly plant perennials but I put annuals in boxes to put on the deck rails and front porch rails. I keep vases of flowers inside the house until the first frost (usually third week in Oct).
When I lived in rural Michigan, an older woman grew a large flower garden every year. Rows and rows. She watered it with a sprinkler tied to a ladder and several hoses linked together that ran from the main house. All summer long and into autumn, she made up bouquets she kept in empty jars and displayed them on an old wooden table with a chair and a lockbox for people to deposit their money. The chair held an old tin tub for the return or donation of jars. Every morning the table was set with this beautiful feast. By mid-afternoon, narry one was left! I miss going past that house!
Momma’s was so proud of her pink peonies. When in bloom there was always a bouquet on the supper table. Also her fertilizer was ashes from the kitchen cook stove. Like Randy, we had plenty of food and ate what was on the table. A treat would be a baloney sandwich on white bread and a Pepsi cola. At Christmas momma would make chocolate candy and pour it out in a white oval shape platter. We didn’t have a lot but had food on our table, good place to sleep and shoes on our feet. Like the old song says “thank you Lord for your blessings on me.” Four weeks ago I had a cornea transplant. I’m doing exceptionally well. I have missed you all!!
Brenda-I’m so glad the transplant is going well 🙂
Flowers make a house a bright and cheerful home. It would be a sad world without them
My life as a child was very similar to the life Brenda describes. Very little food bought in a store, I like to say unlike today, very few children were “picky” eaters, you ate what was on the table and was glad to get it. Going out to eat at restaurants was unheard of. For us, eating a hot dog was a special occasion, I never never ate or knew anything about pizza until I was about 17 years old. I got a toy twice a year, Christmas and if Daddy got an income tax refund. Any blackberries we had were wild blackberries. Mother loved flowers and had a yard full, but none were planted in our large 1-2 acre garden. Looking back at these tough times, I think families were a lot more loving and closer to one another. We never had money for many of our wants, but we had boundless amounts of love for one another. Now today families are so busy running around like chickens with their heads cut off not having much time for one another.