March 19, 2016
Thoughts of burning off the garden brings back memories for me that are so sharp and real that I swear I can smell the smoke and hear the fire crackle as it catches and takes off across the field. I can feel the heat as my cousins and I run laughing pretending the fire is chasing us all the while being comforted by the sound of the grownups talking around the edges of the garden.
My Mamaw, Pap’s Mother, died when I was in 5th grade. In the years before her death, Pap and Granny had a garden at our house, but also went in with Mamaw, Papaw, and my uncles to make a much larger garden. The shared garden was usually a potato patch a cornfield or both.
In the spring of the year, they’d burn off the gardens in anticipation of planting time. It would be one of those warm March or April days when the mid-day sun teases you of summer to come, but the cool night air that comes rushing down through the holler once the sun sets makes you realize old man winter isn’t quite done yet.
Pap tells me when he was a boy, folks burned the woods surrounding their homes in addition to burning the garden in preparation for growing crops. I found this quote by Lillie Nix in the Foxfire 11 book:
“In the spring of the year, about March, the men of the community would go out and burn the woods. It didn’t kill the timber because the sap wasn’t up, but it caused the grass to come up tender, and the cattle could feed on that.”
Pap said they burned the fields and the woods to kill off insects and disease, to keep the undergrowth of the forests down, and to make the grass grow better for the animals.
Burning the garden beds aided in killing weed seeds and added potash to the soil. Pap especially remembers his family burning the tobacco, tomato, and cabbage beds. After the area was burned, the seeds would be sowed directly into the warm ground. A sheet or old piece of cloth would be tented to cover the whole bed. My recent guest post author, Granny Sue, and her husband burn their lettuce bed each year in the same manner.
The Deer Hunter and I don’t burn our gardens off in the spring. But sometimes I wish I could go back just one time too being the little girl with a ponytail standing at the edge of the big garden where I felt the warmth of the fire on a chilly spring evening and felt the safety and love of the circle of grown ups who taught me to be who I am today.
Every spring of the year when I start working out in the garden I’m reminded of all the gardens I’ve played around and worked in over the years here in Wilson Holler. The only difference this spring is that I have a deep longing to create those same meaningful memories with our grandsons.
Last night’s video: Come to Town with Us!
Tipper
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I am from FL. it was the rite of spring to burn your lawn. cI think 2 pluses. the ash brought the lawn Bach so green and it killed all the weeds including sandspurs. The bane of summer for kids who wanted to go shoeless.
Another great blog, Tipper; although we didn’t always burn our garden spot, we did burn plant beds! Especially true in our money crop of tobacco. Here in Florida, we make great use of “controlled burns” to lessen the undergrowth in areas of trees and in our pastures. It really freshens up both and makes our surroundings safer, more usable, and much nicer in the area burned appearance wise! Really appreciate the memories and thoughts shared with the readership! Hoping your garden preparations and season is a success. As you, always enjoy the inclusion of a border floral garden with the vegetable garden. “Spring has sprung” in these parts and certainly enjoying lots of color.
These are similar vivid memories for me, too!!! I so miss everything associated with having a spring, summer and fall garden!!!!! I so badly want to get back to planting something small—raised beds and bags at the very least…!!! Out neighbors have a burn pile behind their house that they keep going most of the time. They have been burning leaves lately—I love it…!!!
Daddy and my brother would always burn off our garden spot each year along with where our tobacco beds would be. You don’t see gardens being burned off as much here anymore however, we did see some large fields being burned a couple of weeks ago. Tipper, I wish our Tractor Supply store was as nice as the one y’all have in Murphy but as least we do have one. The scenery up there is beautiful. Thank you for taking us along. Have a great day everyone!!
I was told that you burn to kill the weed seeds. It seemed to me that the burn must have encouraged the weed seeds because there were still plenty of the weeds come Summer when I was responsible for hoeing and digging them out. Any time it rained I had to pull weeds for the hogs. You couldn’t pull them from the red clay unless there had been a good rain.
I remember seeing fields being burned when I was a little girl, but my dad only had a small garden so he never did this. Even though I don’t share the same fond memories as you, I still have wonderful memories of tagging along with my dad while he worked in the garden. I would give anything to spend a few hours with him again near the garden. I long to not only feel the warm sunshine, but just spend a few precious moments with my dad who passed away 33 years ago. I can’t wait to see the videos of your grandsons following you and Matt around the garden.
Last week the Chattanooga Audubon Society did a controlled burn on Maclellen Island which is underneath our Veterans Bridge in the part of the Tennessee River that runs through downtown. It didn’t work out, though. There were too many green and invasive species that just wouldn’t burn.
Melanie in my area the cities are renting goats from a goat farm and putting a strand or two of electric fence wire around the area they want to clean and letting the goats go at it. It does not take long for the goats to clean all,of the green vegetation.
You and Matt are going to have so much fun with those babies. You will never be the same!!! Two precious gifts from God. Take care and God bless ❤️
My parents and all of our neighbors burned their garden every spring. I’d love to burn the half acre where I sow flower seeds beside my vegetable garden, but it stays green year-round and is not very flammable. Killing the Johnson grass seed might be what I need to keep the bothersome grass from choking out my flowers about the time they get ready to bloom.
To my recollection we never burned off our gardens for fear of letting the fire get away. Randy mentioned wind. Humidity is important, too, when planning a controlled, or “prescribed” burn of timberland, which is today one of the BMPs–“best management practices” of forestry in general in the Southeast. Mother Nature burned off the woods before professional foresters took up the cause. I started a small wild fire when I was a kid. Scared the pants off of me. We were smoking rabbit tobacco and set some broomstraw afire. The wind grabbed it before we could stomp it out.
Gene-reading your comment brought back memories of me and my brothers smoking rabbit tobacco and corn silks in the garden after daddy plowed! Sick kids we were! Never did that again!!!!
Never got around to corn silks and was never sick from puffing rabbit tobacco, but I got awfully sick once–and only once–from using Brown’s Mule chewing tobacco. Some older neighbor boys told me you’re supposed to swallow a little piece of the plug. Yeah, right.
How do you know spring is coming.. the lettuce bed is burning..adore this phrase from granny Sue. I haven’t seen any garden burnings since I was a kid, but I’m sure out in the Norris area where all the big farms are it’s been done already!
Brenda T..my 5 year old g-granddaughter was visiting Saturday and I let her plant onion sets..she said grandmother I love to play in the dirt..I said I do to honey! Everyone have a great day.
I would love to do this but I wouldn’t dare this year. We are so dry over here in Mitchell County and have had several Fire Warnings/No Burning recently. Along with that horrific fire out in Texas. Be careful folks. Pay attention to the weather.
Hi Patti
I live in Yancey Co, just west of Brvl city limits, have since I married at 18.
Where I grew up in the rural area of the county
I remember my Dad, Grands, all my Uncles and neighbors burning their gardens and fields.
It meant spring was on its way.
I can still remember the smell of the smoke in the air, especially when Dad and Mama burned the garden off
So nice to see a neighbor on the post.
I hope you have a Blessed week
I burned one Of my gardens off last week while my grandchildren were here. I want them to learn a few old ways we still do on our little farm. They like helping me plant and harvest. They aren’t too much into hoeing! lol
I still do this in my garden and just did a section last week! It goes back to the native americans ( Lenny Lenape/Delaware) would do so as well, but I believe they did it every 3 years and would rotate their crops and burn again at that time. We do have a farm not too far from me that I see on occasion that does it on a large scale.
I have videos on my phone of our then, three year old granddaughter, planting onion bulbs with her pap. He taught her which end to put down and how to cover them. She took it all in. Pap was retired before me, and he would babysit her sometimes. They mostly spent these days in the garden or riding around on the tractor. The grandchildren enjoyed helping pick our peppers for canning last year. Children love to feel helpful and needed. A lady from church said something to our two-year old granddaughter recently about being little. She said” I not little, I am big”. When asked how she knew she was big, she replied, “ I cook and I do dishes.” She also loves to help me make beds. Lol
Many years ago, my mother and an older sister set the edge of our woods on fire to eliminate encroachment grasses and other small undergrowth. Though I was not there to witness the event, they caught the woods on fire, requiring the fire department’s assistance. I was told that when my father got wind of it, he was not a happy camper and spent many days repairing the damage to both the woods and our yard. I also recall my father having smoldering garden areas and then overturning ash/potash into the soil. To this day I have a fondness for garden-ready soil, knowing what can come forth from the best work that exists. I love the BPATA as it stirs these wonderful memories. I, too, stood as a young child watching as my love of gardening was born observing the work of my parents.
We burned off our garden and all of our ditches and fence lines every year on the ranch. The ditches were the most important as we gravity watered our fields and overgrown ditches hindered our allotted water getting to us. We also ran a plow through each ditch to get them cleaned out for the new year. The burning of the garden was followed by laying a layer of horse, cow and chicken manure all over the garden and then till it in to the burned off soil. It really made for a great garden every year. I miss those days!!
Very interesting! I learned something new today. I had never heard of garden burning. I did learn while visiting Sequoia National Park that redwood seeds needed the naturally occurring fires to germinate. So interesting.
Linda, I think I saw a tv show or read that seeds from the loblolly pines in the southeastern states have to be burned before they will sprout.
You were on the right track, Randy. It was longleaf pine. I had to look it up to be sure.
Daddy would often burn our garden spot off each year before plowing it. We did not plant anything right after burning it while the ground was still warm. On the news yesterday, it showed the state forest department doing control burns on some of the state parks and forest land. This not only helps to prevent wildfires, the new growth benefits wildlife. The mentioned of potash, my Daddy along with my neighbors would scatter the ashes from their wood stoves and fireplace over their garden spot during the winter to help add potash to the soil. My Daddy always had some of the strike anywhere stove wood matches in his shirt pocket with the end of the stem on one of them trimmed into a point for a toothpick. He would often burn off a spots of unwanted grass. . He taught me when burning to watch for the direction of the wind and to always burn against the wind and to burn several small places instead of one large section, by doing this each new fire will burn into a section that has already burn keeping the fire small.