Dead Plants and Weeds #mfrwauthor

Welcome to Week 20 of the MFRW 52-week challenge. The topic is "How (what) does your garden grow and why." The topic is similar to one in a previous years challenge, whether gardening was pleasure or a pain.

Brown... that is the color of my thumb. It has been said that I could kill a cactus. In point of fact, I have done so. At present I have an ivy and an African violet in my home. But they don't constitute a garden.

I've tried growing tomatoes and peppers in containers. I succeeded in feeding the birds and squirrels who took great pleasure in sneaking in to steal the items just before they could be picked.

In my younger days, I grew up on a farm. Besides the fields of wheat, rye, and corn raised for sale and seed, there was a plot next to the house. We grew a variety of vegetables that we ate straight from the garden and canned or froze the rest for eating in the cold season. I remember pulling weeds, canning pickles, and making ketchup.


Perhaps the most interesting thing about the garden was the plants that weren't planted. Tomato plants grew up from seeds dropped by the local critters who plucked their meal, took a bite or two, then dropped the rest onto the ground. Peelings from potatoes were tossed in a corner of the garden to create compost. We didn't use the more modern potato peeler but a small knife. And the peelings weren't always thin slicings and sometimes contained an eye. Not surprisingly, potato plants appeared in that area the following year.

~till next time, Helen