The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-05-22
andx Cruncb on his Mas Garden.

Bounded on the north by the lot, on the
east by the barley patch, on the south oy the te
peach orchard, there lies a piece OF ground
that my Ma holds rs we'll nigh sacred. They
call 1t the garden, and 1t is fenced IN oy SOM
of the shabbiest palings and planks you evel
saw. There is about threefourths OF an acre
! and Jim, (who has to plow In 1t sometimes
against his willy says, that it.takes more VOTE
| to keep 1t up than all the rest OF the PianIa
tlon together: and think be Is about nal
right. But my Ma says there's not a word o
truth in it, and that any body that mas al
ounce of sense would know there wasnt II
strikes me tho, that she has always got some;
body in there sticking peas and beans, and
hoeing and breaking up the clods, ana tneLl
raking it all off and starting over again. l
| verify believe she could keep two nanas onsy
from the first of March Till the nrst ol octo'
linn stays out OF the garden as much as he
can, and stay:out all !the.time. He says ne
had rather work ten acre Held 6y hllnsel
| hate to judge Jim, but I.think.the main rea.
son is, he knows that as long:as she Is In sight
| he cant sit down and rest every five minutes
| like he does out in the field.
NV Ma saws. that If she could get the garden
manured right, and get RAMON 1t at the rlght
| time, and get 1t worked ut the right time ana
| In the right way, she would have rlght gooo
garden, and believe she Is about rignt.E,at
least 1t looks like 1t ought to work out That
! We have lively times at our house every
once In while when my Ma wants the morse
in the garden and Jim wants him In the heid,
and they both declare that their work ought
to be done first. 1t is hard to ten WHICH is
right. Jim got 1t into his head this year that
knew more ABOUT gardieening tnan - my sbs Ms
would give it up altogether. But she told
him she raised cabbage and beets before ne
was born, and thought she had better keep on
saws there is q heap for US children TO learn
that we think we already knOW.t
AS for myself, don't believe Jim knows
much about gardening. He don't know
ought ought to to be be done. If the whole thing was
placed in his hands, I'm afraid 1t Wouid VINO
up by having half the garden planted IN co.,
ton and the other half In rosin.ears or as ,op Mo
randy would say, 'roasting-ears,' whlcn
sounds to me very ridiculous.
/ have been thinking about gardens good
deal, especially now since vegetables nave
in and I've tne be made
too much of. SO a man who has passed through
the winter and part Of the spring there ls an
unspeakable relief in sitting down to three
plates.full of beans, as hope to do soon, and
then have for desert compost made out OF
corn bread and bean gravy ,(commonly known
as pot-liquorHit is enough toimmortalizea any
garden that ever was plowed-and there are
plenty of other things just as Interesting US
beans.
But there are two that I never had any
longing for-okra ahd lettuce. There Is O
kind OF slipperyness about the one and Kind
of nothingness about the other that Is mol
very attractive to me. Okra has habit OF
sliding down fellows throat before he gets II
fairly in his mouth.
AS for lettuce, l verify believe Sister Jane
could eat O double armful of it-she says Its
delightful, but l had as soen try to eat q
double armful of green moonshine
If you want to make Morandy disguised
lust bring her in some raw. onions. IheY
raise them at our house most strong enough 10
crawl, and If fellow starts TO eating one,
he'll be more than apt to weep over his rash
ness before he gets through. Pve often won,
dered what made onions and pepper and
horse-radish have such q pathetic effect on
people. .
We raise every thing in our graden from
euiueas and chickens up to garlic, which is
the same thing as condensed onions. We also
raise great deal of grass, especially IN the
walks and between the rows. OF course we
always have every thing two or three days be-
fore anybody else.
We haven't had any corn and frled-chicken
vet, but they are coming on. Our stand OF
chickens however amt as good as that OF our
corn. I'm afraid we will have to replant or
reset good many times. Our garden is look,
ing very we'll now only the cabbage has all
been cut down by the worms, and the peas
don't flourish, and the beans are eatenlup oy
the bugs and the okra didn't come up. The
gulneas have eaten up all the straWoerrles out
they are laying very regularly to pay for It,