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The damp soil of spring is just too much for a neighbor boy and I to ignore. We are kindred
spirits with an inborn love of creation even though he is only five and I am almost 75. Years
ago a dear friend shared her secret with me for growing squash.
“Spread hay on the ground where you want to grow squash,” she told me. All winter long take
your kitchen scraps there and cover them with the hay. When spring comes pull a small bit of
hay apart and dig up that place only, into a hill. Plant several squash seeds there. When they
come up, pull more hay around the hills. You will have wonderful squash vines with no hoeing.”
So it is, my friend has been gone for too many years to remember but her memory is strong with
me every year when spring arrives and I use her method to plant the squash my family loves so
much.
My little friend’s hands probe around in the earth and all at once he finds an apricot seed that has sprouted.
“What is this?” He looks at me with wonderment in his eyes.
“Why look! An apricot tree just like this one has sprouted.”
Without a look back he runs around to another space that needs a tree.
“I’m planting this,” he said to me.
And on it goes, from generation to generation, somehow the little tricks of gardeners are passed.
spirits with an inborn love of creation even though he is only five and I am almost 75. Years
ago a dear friend shared her secret with me for growing squash.
“Spread hay on the ground where you want to grow squash,” she told me. All winter long take
your kitchen scraps there and cover them with the hay. When spring comes pull a small bit of
hay apart and dig up that place only, into a hill. Plant several squash seeds there. When they
come up, pull more hay around the hills. You will have wonderful squash vines with no hoeing.”
So it is, my friend has been gone for too many years to remember but her memory is strong with
me every year when spring arrives and I use her method to plant the squash my family loves so
much.
My little friend’s hands probe around in the earth and all at once he finds an apricot seed that has sprouted.
“What is this?” He looks at me with wonderment in his eyes.
“Why look! An apricot tree just like this one has sprouted.”
Without a look back he runs around to another space that needs a tree.
“I’m planting this,” he said to me.
And on it goes, from generation to generation, somehow the little tricks of gardeners are passed.