Building raised beds several years ago
rotten verb To spoil, decay.
1937 Hyatt Kiverlid 68 I’ll make one fatty dodger, but they ain’t no use rottenin’ Shad with spilin’ in no sich a-way. 1957 Combs Lg Sthn High: Word List 83 = to rot. Ex: “Then ingerns’ll be a-rottenin’ soon, if ye don’t dig ’em.” 1960 McCaulley Cades Cove I’ve made lots of caskets that’s in them graveyards right there in Cades Cove now, a-laying there a-rottening. 1996 GSMNPCOHP I can show you poplar trees out there, five and six foot tree[s] a-laying on the ground a-rottening right now. 1997 Montgomery Coll (known to nine consultants from the Smoky Mountains).
—Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English
2023 Brasstown Those logs are just rottening away to nothing.
A few months back I had a message from Rebecca asking if I was familiar with the word rottening. I assured her I was. The usage is very common in my area of Appalachia and in my own house.
As we worked in the garden the other day we realized the time for replacing the logs that surround the raised beds in the backyard has come. To tell the truth some of them have decomposed to the point that you can’t even tell they were ever there.
The Deer Hunter is hopeful he can use some of the tin from our roof re-do last year to surround the beds.
Last night’s video: Finding Rejuvenation in the Winter Garden.
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Love this post and the interested replies. Since we never used ings at the end of a word in my bygone days, we did use rottenin’ away. Myself and a couple of my young friends were totally brainwashed by a wonderful English teacher named Mrs. Toothman. We spent several hours awkwardly talking and having fun by making an effort to throw that ing on the end of our words. I also remember one teacher emphasizing that our use of words was fine since it came from the original uppity English of our mother country. They tried, but unfortunately, they only really stopped us from using ain’t. I now embrace many words and expressions those dear teachers fought so hard to squelch.
Me and my husband were huntin for fish bait one time and turned over some “rottening” logs and found the biggest black widow spider I’ve ever seen or care to see again! I liked to have had a heart attack. I don’t care for spiders a bit…especially poisonous ones. Everybody watch out if you’re foolin with hollowed out wood…apparently those suckers like to live in it.
Morning everyone. Hope y’all have a great weekend. Miss Tipper, my wonderful mother-in-law, now gone home to our Father in heaven, Use to say this phrase and I’d just loved hearing it from her. It was, of a morning , of an evening, and so on. She was a country lady and wise as she could be. I believe she was born around Bebe, Arkansas. Have you ever heard this phrase before. Also, an old friend of mine says yuns, it’s a familiar term used in Southern, Missouri, and I’m sure others in parts of the south. It drove my best friend crazy. She was from the same area as her husband. Love to your momma, I’d love to meet her and watch her do her crocheting, another thing my mom-in-law taught me. She was like granny and produced some of the most beautiful things with her craft. Great gardening video with y’all last evening. You and Matt are such hard working people. Take care. Jennifer
“of a mornin, of an evenin, of the day and of the night” I’ve heard ’em all. The last time I remember hearin one of the last time I said it. Might have been this mornin!
Jennifer-I have heard it often 🙂
My little boy always says “it’s rottening” when he sees something going bad and I find it too cute to correct. Now I can just claim it’s that Appalachian blood his grandparents handed down to him!
We use rottening away here too. Once again, loved the video last night. I just love the smell of fresh turned soil. I can remember so well when daddy was on his tractor getting the ground ready for the garden. If it was when I happened to be home, I would go outside and stand at the beginning of the area he was turning and just breathe it all in. You know you are a country girl for sure when you love the smell of dirt 🙂
I remember hearing it said that someone’s teeth were rottenin’ right out of their heads…
Yes, nature takes things that will rot back by “rottening” or – to some – by “rotting”. Offhand I don’t know which I say but ” rottening” sounds more right. I recall hearing “rottening down” to. I have a hickory rottening down now, shed limbs for 3 years and a few weeks ago dropped about 30 feet of trunk and is now a 20-foot snag.
Good morning everyone. My mom always said “rottening”. She learned to speak English in England and Canada. It’s going to be 68 degrees today, and almost that tomorrow in NE Arkansas. Like you I will be cleaning out beds. We were lucky to find railroad ties on the property. Leftovers from the tracks that went through the property long ago. Enough to make 2 very large raised beds. We tore down an old aluminum shed. And gave it to a neighbor to rebuild his chicken coop. Last year I bought aluminum raised beds from Amazon, and gained a friend. Thank you for my morning stories to go with my coffee.
My dad’s people, originally from Ireland and eventually into West Virginia, used a version of “rottening;” He said “rottering,”in relation to trees but also stacks of unusable lumber. We also got a kick out his refusable to use the word “was;” He only said “weren’t,” as in “I were (or weren’t) able to use that old wood.” We think “was” was not a word he grew up with because he never said it but always misused it as were or weren’t. Like rottering, which we grew up hearing, we all thought it was a normal way of explaining rotting wood. I don’t say it myself, but I know exactly what it means. It’s so wonderful to be able to talk about these things, which helps us to recall the histories and details of our families.
“Put that Young’un down , yere ‘a spiling it rotten.” Back in the day, folks let their babies cry it out. Sometimes I can still hear the accusation, “ he is spoiled plum rotten!”
good morning friends, fishing season is here,, I have a tip, if you put your hook in the water, you will catch more fish !!! God bless you friends, have a great day with Jesus, God bless Granny Wilson
I loved watching your video last evening—made me want to go work in our garden so bad. Hubby says our garlic is peeking up. That’s exciting news! We did get our apple trees all pruned and cleaned up the mess. I really like doing that in winter. We have some old railroad ties at the beginning of our driveway that are rottening. They definitely need replaced soon. I also watched Corie’s cozy day video. It was so relaxing and sweet.
I am going to make Miss Cindy’s ham recipe and your cinnamon cake this morning. I am happy to make them, but it is for the sad reason of losing my longtime neighbor and friend (Debbie) to cancer two days ago. There are lots of family and friends stopping by and visiting her husband, and both recipes sounded like a good idea to make. She was always the first person to cook for anyone who was sick or just needed a meal. She helped me and my husband get through Covid a couple years ago by bringing us food for days. We will miss our front porch visits with the sweetest neighbor ever.
Brenda-I’m so sorry you all lost Debbie. I will pray for her family and friends.
Thank you so much Tipper. ❤️ I will also keep praying for your Mama. Btw, the cake is in the oven and smells so good. I know they will all enjoy it. Thank you, also, for posting and sharing your delicious recipes.
Debbie, I am sorry for the loss of your friend. In two weeks I will be 70 years old if the Lord lets me live. This morning a lifelong best friend called to tell me another one of our friends and classmates had died. I found out this week cancer has came back on another very good friend and classmate. I really didn’t understand what my father in law was trying to tell me when he was this age, I think I do now. It was you know you are old when more of your lifelong friends have passed away than they are still living. I still have many friends, many of them are lifelong friends but it seems like more and more of them are dying everyday. I will pray for you.
Very sorry for your loss. God bless you for being such a good neighbor. Jennifer
Brenda, I am sorry, I got your names turned around.
Brenda, I am so sorry for your loss! We will lift all y’all in prayer! May the Lord bring much comfort and peace to you!
Brenda – I also lost a friend & neighbor 3 days ago to pancreatic cancer. She lived 7 months after diagnosis & was only 63 years old. In addition to all the wonderful things that hospice does, they now serve food to the family after the patient passes. I did not know that. It looks as tho we had wonderful friends that’s going to be missed.
Brenda-I’m sorry for the loss of your neighbor too.
Thank you everyone for your kind words and prayers. Cancer seems to affect everyone in some way or another—we all know someone. It’s wonderful that we can all pray for each other.
Happy Groundhog Day to everyone, I think he is going to see his shadow around here today, it is supposed to be sunny and in the upper 60’s. Today is sort of an anniversary for me, 48 years ago I started working at Michelin and worked there 38 years before retiring.
All of my raised beds were made using treated lumber, some of the lumber was used lumber and is around 40 years old and still not rotten. I know the experts say you are not supposed to use treated lumber to make the beds, but so far none of the vegetables that were grown and eaten from these beds has not killed me. According to the experts, many other things I have used or did in my life was suppose to kill me too, but I’m stilling kicking just not as high as I once did. I guess it will kill me one of these days. I don’t think today’s treated lumber will last that long, a different treatment process is used today. I have read of planting things such as pepper plants in square bales of hay but have never got around to trying it.
We use rottenin away a lot around here too.
I believe ingern is onion, but is not a term we use. If memory serves me Tipper posted it somewhere.
We say onion like “unyun” and I’ve heard “onyun”, but never heard tale of ingerns. Wonder where that term originates from?
By the way I am in the process of digging trenches through my garden which I am filling with dead wood and leaves. I plan to cover them back over with topsoil and use them as rows for my garden. Hopefully they will rotten away and release nourishment to the young plants.
My soil below 4 or 5 inches is red clay filled with little brittle rocks. I am hoping that adding organic materials deeper in the that layer of clay will break it up (or break it down) into something more conducive to gardening.
I forgot to add when using the garage door panels, I used the garage door rails for posts to support the panels. I cut the rails with a cut off saw in 30 ” lengths. The beds ended up in varying heights from 12″ to 18″ depending on where I was replacing.
I too had to replace rotting boards on my raised beds. I used garage door panels which were available for the asking at a local garage door installer. These can be modified easily to fit any size. I used both metal and vinyl. I really like the vinyl as they can easily be split in half and are stronger than the metal. I even used the panels to cover the bottom 20″ of the fence to keep rabbits out. My next plans are to use the wooden panels to build a deer blind for my son in law. The steel rails are being used as posts for wire for supporting my raspberries.
“ingerns”? What in the world is an ingern? At first I thought they were talking about ernions /earn·yuns/ onions but you pull onions not dig them.
Yes, it’s a made-up word for onion. Our family used it humorously. I thought we were the only ones, until today. We fractured lots of ordinary terms around the house. Turnip greens might come out termite greens. Taters were often just spuds. Cigarettes could be coffin nails. A woodpecker would be a peckerwood sometimes.
Our family uses peckerwood sometimes. I’ve also heard “seegrettes” for cigarettes. Oh we have lots of “slang” as my English teacher called it. I’m thinking for our reunion this year we should pick each other’s brain for a word list of mispronounced words. It would be so much fun!
I have heard onions called “ingerns” along with the the word “ungens” but it has been a while.
Enjoyed the video last night. We have the same thing going on with the flower beds around our house. We will need to take care of that this fall.
There’s all tose extra letters again. I really enjoy hearing the dialect from various parts of the Appalachia.