Flashback Friday

Flashback Friday, this is a meme I haven't participated in a while, but I can truly relate to this one.

If you would like to join in grab the questions from Linda and link back to her.  Have fun.

Do you have any memories of gardens from your growing-up years? Did your parents have a flower garden? Was landscaping important to them? Did they take care of the yard themselves or have someone else do it? What about a vegetable garden? Did your family have one and was it big or small? Any fruit trees? Did your mom (or anyone) "put up" (as we say in the South) or can the bounty from a garden? What involvement did you and any siblings have in planting? Was growing things encouraged, discouraged, or treated with ambivalence? What is your attitude, ability and involvement in gardening today?

During my growing up years, my Dad always planted a garden on Good Friday.  I'm not sure if it was required of us to help, but most of the time I did.    He would show me how to drop the seeds and then he would walk behind me and cover them while I dropped them.   I can remember digging potatoes, picking green beans, and corn.  There were other vegetables in the garden but Mama always cut the okra and picked the cucumbers.  The potatoes were always the first few rows then the peas and beans.  Corn would always be the last few rows.    I shelled many a bean, and peas, and shucked corn.  My maternal grandmother would come sometimes and stay and help get everything put in the freezer.  Then when we would go to her house  on some Saturdays, there would always be beans, or peas to shell.  I don't remember my Mom ever putting them in jars.  It was always bags, or plastic freezer containers.  They would sit on the kitchen counter until they were cool enough to put in the freezer.

But the one thing I regret now is never hanging around to see how they put them up.   A couple of years ago when Scott decided to plant a garden he was surprised that I didn't know how to put anything up to go in the freezer.  I had to call my Mom and learn about blanching vegetables.

There was a pear tree way off to the right of the garden.  It was always loaded down with pears.  My Mama would make pear cobblers, or pear tarts from them.  But my favorite was just to eat them like an apple.  You don't find pears like that anymore.

My Dad, or brothers always cut the grass themselves.  I don't remember anyone ever doing it for us.  I'm sure as I got older I cut my share.  There was a row of azaleas beside the driveway separating it from the where the garden was.  I can remember my Mama out there pulling up weeds around them.  Then we had some kind of purple flowers along the back of the house.  I don't remember the name of them, but I remember cutting them down when we cut the grass and they would come right back.  Finally years later, Mama offered them to a neighbor and they got out there and dug them up.

As we got older and I guess Mama had more time to be outside she started a rose garden.  I wish I had pictures on here because she could grow them so pretty.  Maybe that's where I get my love for roses from, and that's one thing I can grow.  I love roses, but I want colors you don't see ofter, not reds, and pinks.  I have never been able to take flower seeds and plant them and they grow.  I have always had to buy the plants and they would last and do well.

It's strange how memories come back from so many years ago.  I never realized then the importance of growing a garden, but we had vegetables that lasted until the next year by doing so.