Our spring veggies and greenhouse seedlings are coming right along. I hope to plant a few more things in the greenhouse later today.
We’ve been using our extra time at home to do a lot of outside chores.
Over the years when we’ve wanted to enlarge our planting area we always run into the same problem: our one acre of land is on the side of a mountain.
During the past several days we’ve been clearing off the bank behind the house in the hopes of terracing at least a portion of it for growing.
If you’re new to planting by the signs you can visit this post to read my take on it.
Tipper
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I would to know the best times for planting vegtables
JE-The days marked on the calendar are the days I think are best for planting vegetables. I’ll post another calendar on the first of May.
Tipper,
Cora Hardin, some kinda Kin to Dillard Hardin and Grandma’s sister, she had many sisters, and every time we saw her coming up the highway to Bigfists Gulf Station, Harold would say “here comes that ole witch.” We played under a big Sign when we lived on Tucker Branch. It was located on a hill on our property and we could look down the road and see folks coming. Cora was going after Snuff, all the older folks dipped then. She dressed alot in Black. Maybe that’s what me and Harold think she was a Witch. Anyway, she had long, black hair that went plum down passed her…ankles. She looked like it had never been cut, and she wore it all balled up at the back of her head.
I was about 4 or less than 5 and Harold was about 7. It was later that we started Singing in Churches all around. Mama taught us about Timing, and we could Harmonize about like Chitter and Chatter.
I have a little, bench-legged, brown Jack Russel. He sees everything and let’s me know it. Sometimes I call Whisky, “Sir, Barks Alot.” …Ken
Who’s tending Pap’s big garden?
Ed-Pap’s big garden was on my older brothers land. After Pap died he turned it into an orchard 🙂
I think terracing the back bank is a great idea!
I remember that HILL, behind your house! Terracing it would be so neat. But then I hear in San Francisco there’s a street on a hill like that!
We have lettuce, radishes, spinach, turnips, 200 onions, and potatoes planted. The blacksmith has tomatoes plants growing at the patio door in styrofoam cups. Still too cold here for them to be outside.
Stay well!
My mother and especially Grammaw Cora planted, cooked and canned by the signs but not the signs shown in your chart. The Cancer-Scorpio-Pisces-Taurus were replaced by Breast-Secrets-Feet-Neck. Every horoscope was assigned a body part. Grammaw had everything memorized. All she had to do was look at the calendar and tell you what you could do and couldn’t do. Mommy had to ask Grammaw.
I remember one thing particularly well Grammaw trying to explain it all to me. She said “You can’t make kraut when the signs were in the feet or it will smell like dirty feet.” I remember asking her what the “Secrets” were. She said “That’s a secret!”
I would consult the signs more when planting but can’t find a calendar with the signs like my predecessors used. I sorta understand whether to plant or not but what about the days that not marked. And some of the signs are one day while others are more. Do you understand that stuff?
B Ruth. Whar gee go? Miss your wit.
My youngest daughter is raising her first garden this year. I am so proud of her, but secretly laughed when she sent me pictures of the plants she started in the greenhouse. She had started lettuce in those little store bought growing cubes and it was THICK. She has always been career focused and said it was just as easy to buy what she needed. Now that she has got the gardening bug, maybe we can work on planting by the signs.
I’ve never planted by the signs but have known some who did. My Mamaw Lewis believed in the signs for gardening to weaning babies.
PINNACLECREEK made me think of long sleeves and hats. Mom always wore long sleeves and a hat when working in the garden or hoeing tobacco. At night she would slather on Ponds or Avon to her arms and face. She is 93 yrs. old and you would never know by looking. I got more wrinkles than she does.
I knew a beautiful lady who had wonderful smooth skin. She told us she never went to bed without putting cold cream on her face. She said if she didn’t have the cold cream, she used vaseline!
How lucky we are to be able to go out to put in gardens or just walk around. I feel so sorry for folks who have to stay in their apartments in large cities. We are truly blessed.
Your all’s situation is familiar. I only have one area that gets enough sun for a garden. Over the years I have taken up very nearly all of it as vegetable garden. It is also on a slope so I have 5 low terraces made with crossties and concrete blocks. They look rough and the crossties need to be replaced but I can’t get them anymore. I would like to build walls with the rough face block but it would be too much money just for pretty.
I am sure the Deer Hunter will have a good plan for retaining walls on your bank. Good luck on all your all’s hard work.
I have some spindly little plants in tin cans in the window. I have watched YouTube tutorials, and the entire tone of the country seems to have changed. They are encouraging even more recycling , and so for first time I have tin cans lined up. I thought I was resourceful, but a first for this. World events have made me rethink everything, as I had just decreased the size of my garden.
It is so great, Tipper, that you and your family still work a large garden every year. That is such good training for your children for their future. I consider my years of growing up and learning these skills to be one of life’s greatest blessings. My parents were depression era, and they never forgot the lessons learned. When I was caught up in the sunbathing so popular in my teens, my mother would remind me they covered their arms with long sleeves and wore hats, because back in the day they liked to hide tanned arms because they didn’t want to show they had worked in the fields all day. . By the way, my Dad always had a garden on a rather steep hillside, and it grew the best potatoes and tomatoes for years. Then I remember one terrible year of blight on the tomatoes. It seemed not to slow my Mother’s canning down at all, as there was so much else she had to work with.