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This was my Dad's garden when I was a kid at home in the late 60's. Actually it's only about 1/3 of it. We had corn and potatoes in another section along with strawberries and raspberries. He was a real perfectionist when it came to planting. Everything had to be lined off and practically surveyed. Those rows are about 150 feet long and all done with a garden hoe. It took a lot of food to raise 15 kids and we learned a good work ethic in the process. Growing up, I used to hate working in a garden but now I'd be lost without one. If nothing else, it's a very inexpensive hobby and good therapy for the body and soul.
Yep, that's the way to feed kids. If you don't have money it is difficult to feed a family properly in a place where you can't farm. Most people these days (like me ) seem to have much smaller gardens. My maternal grandparents raised 11 surviving kids and they had to grow/catch their own food.
I'm pretty sure my grandmother had no clue about birth control. LOL I wonder how many kids she had had before she caught on.
Anyway, that was a tough life. Thanks for sharing pictures of the garden and your dad's garden. They're awesome.
Homersboy your garden growing up sounded like our "truck patch" we had 3 generations living on the farm to put by for. There is a canning thread you might be interested in a few of us post in it too. Now you have me wondering if I can plant sweet potatoes next year in this teeny tiny spot I have now.
Check out the history of the Mortgage Lifter heirloom tomato on this link. Being a student of genetics I already knew this from years gone by. Also some might find it interesting to know the one of the all time favorite now heirloom open pollinated varieties, the Rutgers also had hybrid ancestors. So many varieties of unknown heritage created from cross pollination by weather and wildlife which kept no records.
What our ancestors believed about the tomato. This seems to be sort of inline with how a lot feel about what they don't understand now: History of Tomatoes
This was taken last week from the other end of my garden. It looks to be a great year for gardening with all the rain we're having.
wow, it makes my little corner of the world look pretty sad!!! But I did have some encouragement this morning, I found one little lonely patty pan squash. Where there is one, I bet there are others. of course it was so tiny, I almost needed a magnifying glass to see it, but I did and I so happy.
FINALLY I got a tomato plant (early girl or boy) into the ground and got a patio tomato into a pot on the deck. This is setting a new record in lateness of planting but all we've had is cold rain. The tomato plants at the garden center looked awful--leggy and rotted. Surprisingly, the ones at the big box store were better.
So now I get to start worrying about enough water, enough compost, keeping the bugs off and I will DIE if I get one of those horrible huge green tomato horn worm things again like I did last year.
mnita, good with your squash, tiny as it may be. At least it's something!
FINALLY I got a tomato plant (early girl or boy) into the ground and got a patio tomato into a pot on the deck. This is setting a new record in lateness of planting but all we've had is cold rain. The tomato plants at the garden center looked awful--leggy and rotted. Surprisingly, the ones at the big box store were better.
So now I get to start worrying about enough water, enough compost, keeping the bugs off and I will DIE if I get one of those horrible huge green tomato horn worm things again like I did last year.
mnita, good with your squash, tiny as it may be. At least it's something!
Hello there how are you ? I always read that you guys in the States have problems with those horrible huge green tomato horn worms how come...are they only from there? I never ever had any problems with pests
Hello there how are you ? I always read that you guys in the States have problems with those horrible huge green tomato horn worms how come...are they only from there? I never ever had any problems with pests
Hi in Canada. I never saw one of those green ugly monsters before in all my years of gardening life. Not until last year. It was incredibly horrible and scary. It ate the leaves but you couldn't see it because it was the same color as the tomato leaves and as for me, I didn't even know enough to look for it.
Hideous thing. I guess it turns into a moth later but I don't care, I just don't want another one. I'm in the north (will be in Canada this summer I hope) and people do speak of these things now that I am asking about them. Never heard of them before though.
Tomato horn worms do a lot of damage at night. I've picked them off with a flashlight. Last year I put some in a jar and let them mature into the moth so I could see what the parents looked like. They are ugly too. They eat leaves, stems, and the tomato itself at a fast pace. I think they hide during the day.
Tomato horn worms do a lot of damage at night. I've picked them off with a flashlight. Last year I put some in a jar and let them mature into the moth so I could see what the parents looked like. They are ugly too. They eat leaves, stems, and the tomato itself at a fast pace. I think they hide during the day.
Maybe that's why I didn't know what was doing the damage. But one day, there it was, the horrid thing. I'm glad the parents are ugly too, I feel no guilt that my husband squashed it. This year if my plants are being eaten I'll know what to look for although I hope that was my first AND last.
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) seem to have much smaller gardens. My maternal grandparents raised 11 surviving kids and they had to grow/catch their own food. 
