Dads garden . . . .

This song, by David Mallet, always reminds me of my dad. 




Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
All it takes is a rake and a hoe
And a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by row
Someone bless these seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below
'Til the rain comes tumbling down

Pulling weeds and pickin' stones
Man is made from dreams and bones
Feel the need to grow my own
'Cause the time is close at hand
Grain for grain, sun and rain
Find my way in nature's chain
To my body and my brain
To the music from the land

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
All it takes is a rake and a hoe
And a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by row
Someone bless these seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below
'Til the rain comes tumbling down

Plant your rows straight and long
Thicker than with pray'r and song
Mother Earth will make you strong
If you give her love and care
Old crow watchin' hungrily
From his perch in yonder tree
In my garden I'm as free
As that feathered thief up there

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
All it takes is a rake and a hoe
And a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by row
Someone bless the seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below
'Til the rain comes tumbling down

'Til the rain comes tumbling down

He loved his garden. What started as a small tilled plot, of really hard, bad clay soil, turned into raised beds and beautiful rich black soil.
Mom was always right there beside him, even when she thought he was over doing it by trying something new or adding more beds.

 He didn't just grow vegetables. . . .

 . .  but equally loved his flowers and roses.

 We made him a nice shed. . ..

 . . . got the water real close so he didn't have to drag hoses all across the yard.

Well since his passing, my brothers family and mine have tried to help mom keep it going.

 Now I don't mind doing the hard work; the tilling or digging, but I don't really have the mind set for the little details, . . . like the planting.

Luckily, mom and wife do, and hopefully daughter, with wife's guidance, will have it also.

Last night was a perfect spring evening for working in the garden.

 Wife and daughter hard at it.

 Daughter helping to plant some of the plants she started (see two earlier posts) from seed.

Looking good so far.

Early spinach already going into salads.


Don't ya just love it when kids learn to grow something, then can eat it right out of the garden.













And I'll end with a Guy Clark song. . .Homegrown Tomatoes

Ain't nothin' in the world that I like better
Than bacon & lettuce & homegrown tomatoes
Up in the mornin' out in the garden


Get you a ripe one don't get a hard one
Plant `em in the spring eat `em in the summer
All winter with out `em's a culinary bummer
I forget all about the sweatin' & diggin'
Everytime I go out & pick me a big one


Homegrown tomatoes homegrown tomatoes
What'd life be without homegrown tomatoes
Only two things that money can't buy
That's true love & homegrown tomatoes


You can go out to eat & that's for sure
But it's nothin' a homegrown tomato won't cure
Put `em in a salad, put `em in a stew
You can make your very own tomato juice
Eat `em with egss, eat `em with gravy
Eat `em with beans, pinto or navy
Put `em on the site put `em in the middle
Put a homegrown tomato on a hotcake griddle


If I's to change this life I lead
I'd be Johnny Tomato Seed
`Cause I know what this country needs
Homegrown tomatoes in every yard you see
When I die don't bury me
In a box in a cemetary
Out in the garden would be much better
I could be pushin' up homegrown tomatoes