Growing Vegetables in the Dirt

Every year I make some sort of attempt at growing my own vegetables. Every year my husband rolls his eyes and pretty much keeps his mouth shut. I have to plant a few vegetables; after all I am my mother’s daughter. My mom had an outstanding green thumb. We lived off the canned and frozen results of her labor year round. In the summer at our house, if you sat down you found a pan of green beans in front of you to snap. On the weekends the kitchen was canning central. Jellies, jams, butters, pie filling, and sliced fruit from the fruit trees, grape vines, and currant and quince bushes. Pickles, relishes, hot peppers, green beans, and whatever else she was growing that year, from the garden. It was all delicious, and wonderfully healthy.

I am not my mother. My attempts are not quite as successful. I can blame it partially on my small, mostly shady yard. My mom had at least a quarter acre just for her garden. Then of course there was the myriad of fruit trees; apple, pear, peach, cherry, apricot, plum and even black walnut. I have one measly grape vine that is rapidly losing out to the magnolia tree, and at most, a 7x7 area I could actually make into a garden and still have grass for the dogs. This has led to some interestingly creative solutions at times. Last year’s took the cake!

In the past I had tried gardening using pails. It seemed easier than tilling up the soil for such a small garden. I crammed these pails into my little area and tried to keep the more aggressive plants from overshadowing the smaller peppers and such. It was OK, but surely there was something better. I was considering a raised bed for last year, but then I came upon this interesting idea. Gardening using straw bales! 

The pictures were gorgeous! This perfect little garden at a nice working level…..and no soil needed! My husband rolled his eyes again and off we went into the country to find our straw bales. I can’t even imagine what our suburban neighbors thought as we unloaded 10 straw bales from the back of our little truck! Honestly, they worked pretty well, but talk about ugly! They most certainly did not resemble the internet sites I had perused for this project. And messy! I had straw all over the place! By this spring they had decomposed quite a bit and made a lovely mulch.

 This spring I went back to my good old standby….pails. I tried something slightly different. I worked them into my flower gardens. So far I am happy with this. After the straw bale fiasco of 2010, my husband didn’t even roll his eyes! I am not sure why I even do this…I really don’t get enough produce to make it worth my time and effort. I could go to a farmers market and get good quality, fresh produce. But I think the following lines from Steel Magnolias sums it up pretty well.

Ouiser - Tomatoes.
Clairee - Don't give these all to me!
Ouiser - Somebody's gotta take em. I hate em. I try not to eat healthy food if I can possibly help it. The sooner my body gives out the better off I'll be... I can't get enough grease into my diet.
Anelle - Then why do you grow them?
Ouiser - Because I'm an old Southern woman and we're supposed to wear funny looking hats and ugly clothes and grow vegetables in the dirt. Don't ask me those questions. I don't know why, I don't make the rules! 

Have a wonderful day! ~Marla

A Time to Remember

Up in the attic

Down on my knees

Lifetimes of boxes

Timeless to me

Letters and photographs

Yellowed with years

Some bringing laughter

Some bringing tears 

Memorial Day. A time to remember. My husband and I decorate graves on Memorial Day weekend. We usually start on Friday with our parents graves. It means a lot to us to take a moment out of our busy schedule and pay tribute to those who came before us. 

My father died 15 years ago. My mother-in-law 12 years ago. My own mother, 7 years ago. Decorating the graves is a bittersweet time. The pain of loss is still there, though tempered by the passage of time. But the overwhelming love hasn't changed at all. The sweetness of it is almost more than I can bear. These wonderful people, who sacrificed, nurtured and protected us. Rubbed and kissed our boo-boos. Worked long hours to put food on the table. Comforted us during difficult times. They are without a doubt my heroes.

And so we honor their memory with beautiful flowers placed upon a grave that bears their name. A day of remembering, a lifetime of love.

Time never changes

The memories, the faces

Of loved ones, who bring to me

All that I come from

And all that I live for

And all that I'm going to be

My precious family

Is more than an heirloom to me

~Marla

Lyrics are from the song "Heirlooms"

The Perfect Mother

There is no doubt in my mind that my mother was the most beautiful, loving and kind woman to walk the earth. She was gentle and thoughtful. She always put her family before herself. She always knew what I needed, sometimes before I did myself. When I hurt, I could see the pain mirrored in her own face. The best mother in the entire history of the world.
So, now that it is well established that my mother was at the pinnacle of sainthood......who does this guy think he is?


If the whole world were put into one scale, and my mother in the other, the whole world would kick the beam.  ~Lord Langdale (Henry Bickersteth)


Excuse me, you are sadly mistaken. That would be my mother you are talking about. Why, I've never even heard of this guys mother! Another issue I am having is all of these Facebook messages that people are posting about their perfect mothers. People keep trying to say that they have the best mothers! Why, there are even awards being given for Mother of the Year. I guess that is okay now, because my sweet mother has been gone since 2004, but prior to that? Sorry, that was my mom! Every single year! How can all these moms be the best mom? And if my mom was perfect and I cannot possibly be just like her, then are my children doomed to have a lesser version? 
Wait a minute. What if being the perfect mom is not the goal at all. Maybe it is about being the perfect mom for your children. I think I can handle that concept. Why look at all those wonderful moms out there! Each one a perfect fit for the little beings they were given by God to raise and nurture. So maybe I was great mom too! And I did have the perfect mom after all......the perfect mom for me! 
Happy Mothers Day! ~Marla