As I drive to and fro this time of the year my eyes are snatched from the road by dark brown patches of earth where folks have har’d their gardens in preparation of planting summer’s bounty. For many people turning or harring the garden is the first step of planting. After the turned earth has laid in the weather for a few weeks or even a few months then the area will be plowed or tilled to break up all the clods and make a smoother looser soil for planting seeds.
When I was growing up most of the gardens in Wilson Holler were rarely har’d or turned deep. Most of them were only worked with a walk behind tiller. Some years Pap would get a man down the road to come turn his big garden. The man would often do Uncle Henry’s on the same day.
Har is a word that surprised me. Until I started writing here on the Blind Pig and The Acorn I had no idea that har wasn’t really a word, but a corruption of the word harrow.
Miss Cindy told me she learned the word from The Deer Hunter’s Papaw James. She said “He told me I needed to get the garden hared. I said what is hared? He said you know cut. I said what does cut mean? He said you know hared. Well that could go round and round all day. When the Deer Hunter’s dad came home from work I asked him and he explained.”
The Deer Hunter finally got all the trees taken down that were shading the backside of the big garden and he got all the wood split and moved that was sitting on the garden. With all that completed he was finally able to har the garden yesterday.
It felt so good to have the chore done that we stood and admired it for a good long while.
Last night’s video: Beating Back English Ivy, Garden Chores, & Matt Squares Up The Shed.
Tipper
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That sure is a pretty site Tipper!
Tipper–Waited until the end of the day to open this so I could see the comments (which become unavailable once I access the blog, as you know). As some endlessly intrigued by words, I don’t know why I had never thought of “harrowing” in its relationship to tilling soil vis-a-vis a “harrowing” experience. Yet one disturbs the ground; the other disturbs the soul.
In my area you used the cutting har (harrow) to cut the garden in the spring. Still do.
Dadgummit!!
Sometime in the past few days’ post comments, somebody (Randy or Cousin Ed Ammons, memory’s going) mentioned hearing a family singing old-time music with a dobro. Whoever it was – my apologies for such a poor memory but me and Granny are close to the same age – thought the family might be Mennonite. I didn’t respond to that post, but it’s been buggin’ me; so here it is.
Might that family have been the Brandenberger Family? You can find them on YouTube. I follow them and really like their music and their catalog of songs.
Tipper, I apologize for being off-topic for today, but if I didn’t post I’d have another sleepless night.
Tipper, you been a’workin’ Matt like a rented mule. Best take keer not to kill ‘im.
I’ve seen that cover over what seems to be a car before. There is bound to be good tale in its history and preservation. Do tell, Tipper.
I don’t know the term har but know the word harrow. In my family growing up I think it was always just referred to as “getting the garden ready for planting. Great picture, you can almost smell the wonderful turned dirt. Looks like either Katie or Corie walking on the road holding a little one.
Matt did a great job tilling, plowing the garden. Its a beautiful sight!
Tipper, your garden looks so beautiful…it makes me just want to sit and stare at that picture. I can’t wait to get our little garden all dug up. I am excited to plant onions soon. We are just waiting on the garden area to get dry…too much rain today. Looking forward to seeing videos and pictures of your soon-to-be planted gardens. Hope you have a great day and tell Granny Happy early Birthday for me.
Nothing like the smell of that freshly turned soil. This would be Daddy’s favorite time of year. He lived for Spring and to get the garden ready. It’s an exciting time for sure!
Tipper -I’d say you & Matt had a very full but satisfying day yesterday, and the finished result looks beautiful and inviting for those waiting seeds! May the deer and crows and whatever other critter’s of destruction not come near any of it! I do not recall any helpful implements when my parents had a garden, the turning of the soil was all done by hand with picks, shovels, hoes and rakes. Since we pretty much lived off what we produced, buying only what we could not grow like the staples of flour and sugar etc. having good crops was most important. Canning/preserving & smoking was a constant, along with fishing & hunting. A wonderful way of life that I didn’t appreciate at the time since it was all I knew, but I sure treasure the memories now! Life took me other directions so sadly, my own children did not experience or learn of living such ways and missed so much!! I have one daughter who has since returned to ‘the land’ way of living a few years ago, and it warms my heart immensely to see this. With the way this ole world is going, I feel being as self sufficient as possible is a growing importance for survival. Have a blessed day to you and yours Tipper.
We first turn over or break the soil then disc or harrow it. I did part of mine last week where I’ll plant taters as soon as I can. I ran my rows putting in some all purpose fertilizer. We’re predicted to have a lot of rain today. My seed taters are already sprouting.
Hey Ron, I have some “grocery store taters” that have “eyes” on them. I have read about planting tater peelings on the BP&A. I may cut a little deeper around the eyes when I peel them and then plant them just to see what happens. You mentioned all purpose fertilizer, I use the old time 10-10-10 fertilizer on about anything I plant. 5-10-10 or 10-10-10 is all we have every used in our gardens. Years ago, back when the mule was still living, Daddy would sometimes clean out the stall and scatter the manure on his garden. That worked, but was also like sowing grass seed.
I love the sight and smell of a garden that has been worked up, and I love that Matt was able to get your garden done. For us, sadly, we won’t be plowing, then tilling our garden until the end of April. We still have far too much snow on the ground, and more is expected.
I grew up hearing “har”. My family always said “harrow” but everybody knew what the word meant.
I enjoy seeing the fresh turned earth. That means spring is just around the corner. I’m looking forward to watching you and Matt plant. My husband and I will plant a few tomato plants and cukes if he is able to till the garden. My daffodils and hyacinths are up and blooming.
I’ve never heard that term when referring to plowing the garden. My people always said it was time to “turn” the garden. Now if I hear someone say it’s time to “har” the garden, I’ll know what they mean. Thank you!
Praying for Granny to have good news on her doctor report and excited she will celebrate her birthday tomorrow.
It’s rainy today with some bad weather warnings in our area, but hopefully it will help keep the fires out that have been burning along the east coast in the dry lands of Myrtle Beach SC/NC area and along the Gastonia area west of the interstate from Charlotte area if I understood the news correctly earlier this week. My niece told me last night that fires had started 4 miles from her home in Maryville, but thankfully, they were put out before spreading to far around that area. Hopefully the rains will prevent the fires from stirring up again, but not enough to cause floods. A lot going on in our country and the world that we all need to pray about. Like you say Tipper, prayer is our best weapon. We have a mighty God who hears all our prayers.
I live in upstate SC (Greenville County) and along with the Myrtle Beach fire, on Monday, I read there was at least 100 wild fires in SC. I passed by a very large mulch yard this morning that caught fire yesterday, last night’s rain probably helped, but did not put it out. Mulch, hay and similar things pretty much have to burn out on their own. The mulch fire probably started from heat buildup in the very large several acres pile of mulch. Transfer trucks have been carrying mulch made from the oak trees Helene destroyed for several weeks.
Tipper, how big a garden plot is that right there? I think it’s a mighty fine har’d garden. Doesn’t that dirt look like black gold? I may just admire your photo myself for a spell. It’s that PURTY! And anybody would be proud of pretty ground work like that. I’d say y’all did a mighty fine job-mighty fine! Have a good day! I bet those grandsons will have a ball playing in that dirt! I woke up to rain and glass bottles destined for trash broken on the driveway (my hired hand didn’t put them in a bag but a box that got picked up and carried in the wind.) If it ain’t one thing ain’t it another y’all? God bless each of you this day the Lord has given us.
“If it ain’t one thing, it’s three” is what I always heard.
It must feel so good to have that first important step taken in prepping the garden for planting.
It is a beautiful sight to see. when I was a kid my dad had a little Bowens tractor. He had a lawn mower and a tiller attachment he used to “break up” the garden. When the Deerhunter got his tractor attachments last year it remined me of how happy dad was when he got his tiller attachment. Before then he used a follow behind tiller. Funny the things that stick out in a person’s mind. I also remember how wonderful the tilled earth smelled!
I have called it getting the garden ‘hared’ and ’tilled’ my whole life. This is probably the first time I ever actually wrote the word down. I never knew it wasn’t a real word. It is up here in the mountains where I live. I say we just make it a word. haha!
Burning off the garden was one of the first things we did in early spring before it was hared. The smell of wild onions cooking and dried rabbit tobacco would fill the air as the six of us spread out with pine boughs to beat out any flames that might get loose in the woods or anywhere the winter turnip patch.
I love love love just sitting and looking at freshly tilled soil. It makes me feel new and hopeful and the smell is delightful to me. Can’t wait til it’s time to do ours. Last fall I was able to cover it in our own compost for the first time and that was very exciting for me. If only my 18 year old self could see what kind of things give me thrills now
That patch of land looks great! I’ve planted lettuce, beets, and kohlrabi in our garden so far and next I’ll plant peas. I’ve started peppers, eggplant, and cabbage inside the house and have my indoor garden set up going so that I can get an early start on those plants. Next will be the tomatoes next week. I need to dig up my 2 blueberry bushes and move them to another location in our yard that is more suitable for them to grow. And I have a ton of flower seeds to plant. I love all of the seasons, but especially love spring and watching everything come to life!
The garden patch looks really good!
There is nothing quite like the smell of freshly turned soil. It is exciting to see it getting ready for planting.
I just ordered some new plants for my yard and we are doing more corn this year. So, once the snow melts we will start preparing a place for some rows of corn. If my husband wonders why I want corn so bad… I will just blame Tipper! lol. It’s funny how often I mention your name.
For many years we would harrow our garden using a tractor and then cultivate the rows after things came up using a mule (Kate) and mule drawn plows. A walk behind tiller was unheard of in my area in the 60’s . Every few years I would drive the tractor pulling a two horse turn plow or iron beam subsoil Daddy would be guiding and using to break up the clay down deeper. There is another word besides clay for this I can’t think of right now, maybe hard pan. My Iowa farmer friend calls a harrow or harrowing a disc and discing. Remember the gardens we planted were large gardens, a one acre garden was a smaller garden. Almost everything we ate all year was grown in our garden, only a few things bought at a store. Today’s destruction from deer would not or could not have been tolerated. There would have been a permanent solution for the deer. Anyone remember those walk behind David Bradley tractors sold by Sears? One of my neighbors had one of them.
We won’t be plowing for awhile, we have been getting and still getting a hard heavy rain for several hours this morning but none of the severe storms that was predicted.
a beautiful garden spot, praise God, we survived the storm last night, it wasn’t as extreme as we thought, praise God, God bless everybody
Interesting word, likely comes from harrow, to break up dirt clods and leave a surface of smooth fine eath.
That looks real good. It’s hard to believe spring is nearly here, clocks are going forward this weekend, I’m working on spring cleaning and donating items left and right.
And Granny’s got a big birthday we all will be celebrating with her
I sure hope all the family and loved ones are doing well.
I continue to pray for all who need it.
Sally Jo
East Syracuse NY