Planting the Garden with Mama

Another Trip Down Memory Lane... All In The Family... And What I Think About It...

As I was planting beans in the garden a few days ago, I thought about my mother. I don't know if my brother or sister were involved in her garden-planting sessions, but I participated in many of them.

My mother planted corn, potatoes, pumpkins, melons, etc. in hills within a row. Here's the procedure.

1. Establish a straight line by stretching a string across the garden (tied at each end to a stick that is inserted firmly into the ground.)
2. With the hoe, pull the garden soil back at regular intervals along the straight line, creating a row of shallow holes.
3. Instruct young daughter to follow behind the hoe, placing a specified number of seeds (or seed potatoes) in each hill.
4. Pull the soil back over the seeds with the hoe.
5. Instruct young daughter to follow behind the hoe and gently firm the soil over the seeds with her little feet.

Beans were planted in a similar fashion, but a long shallow ditch was excavated with the hoe instead of a series of small holes.

We called each planting with several seeds a "hill", whether or not it was on top of a little pile of soil.

I didn't realize at the time that I was learning anything, but looking back, I realize that Mama was showing me how to plant a garden as well as requiring me to do a little job.

Recently, my daughter told me that she was surprised how many things she knew how to do because she had watched and helped me do them when she was little.

One of the Mennonite women once told me that they teach the children how to do things by working with them. It's common to see their children helping in the garden, the milk barn, the machine shed, or wherever.

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