THE GARDEN

 
          When I was out in the garden
                Pickin’ a mess of peas.
         I almost died a’laughin’
                When I heard a chicken sneeze.

A large fenced-in plot of ground south of the clothes line served as the vegetable garden.
This was separate from the equally large potato patch which was way out east. There was no watering, no fertilizing or spraying, so it was up to nature, but the crops were surprisingly good. There was an abundance of sunshine. In the middle of April, Mother would gather up seed packets, string, the hoe and a couple of buckets of water and go to the garden patch. Jenny helped carry things and they would plant the early garden. If Margaret were home from school, she would help too. Daddy had already gone over the ground with Frank and Barney pulling the plow, and then the harrow to break up the soil and smooth it over.

Mother would first take string and tie it to stakes to make straight rows. She made furrows with the sharp point of the hoe set on edge. It was amazing to see how many bugs lived in the ground. Birds would fly down, waiting until the coast was clear for them to feast on the bugs. Mother and Jenny would plant red and white radishes, green leaf lettuce, beets for pickling, several rows of peas, green beans and onion sets. They would eat some of the onions while they were tiny and green and mild, and let the rest grow large and would dig them in late summer and store them in the cool dark cave where they would be kept all year long to be used every night in the fried potatoes for supper, in relishes and sometime in small amounts with the Sunday beef roast. They would lightly sprinkle the soil atop the newly planted seeds by dipping their hands in the buckets of water. Mother said this helped them to germinate. It was while they planted the rows of peas that Mother had recited the rhyme: “When I was out in the garden, Pickin’ a mess of peas. I almost died a laughin’. When I heard a chicken sneeze.”

Jenny almost died laughing right there when she though about how funny a chicken would sound and look sneezing. The chicken house was just south and east of the garden and Jenny walked over to this corner, looking at the chickens pecking away in the chicken yard, and thought that if she kept very quiet, she might hear one sneezing. Sometimes a chicken would fly over the fence into the garden and Jenny would shoo it out the gate before it could scratch up the newly planted garden. The two dogs and numerous cats kept the rabbit population down. A smart rabbit looked for a spot further from the house for safer grazing.

Early May was the time to plant the late garden. There would be cucumbers for the sweet pickles and Dutch pickles and piccalilli. There would be watermelons and cantaloupes A chilled melon would be so good on a hot day in August or September. Some years the melons would be excellent and in other years the flavor would be disappointing. There was usually an abundant crop of tomatoes. They set out many plants. First they would be used as slicers and the rest would be for canned tomatoes or relish. Mother would make watermelon pickles from the inner part of the watermelon rinds.

The planting had been fun. The hard part came when the weeds began to grow and the garden had to be weeded, but Mother persevered. Decked in sunbonnet, apron, and stocking legs pinned to her sleeves to keep the sun off her arms, and armed with three kinds of hoes, she began her attack. She looked at Jenny’s bare feet and would say, “Now stay out of the way. I don’t want to chop off your toe.”

In the hottest driest years, the sun would burn some of the garden to a crisp, but enough of the hardier plants survived so that the garden was always wonderful.