by Lyn Adaway

Created on: June 18, 2009

My father never allowed females to work in his garden. His house rule was men do yard work and gardening.

He always had a large garden with beautiful vegetables. It never had a weed problem and he never used a commercial fertilizer. When the growing season ended, he simply used the riding lawn mower to shred the dead plants, and then plowed them into the dirt.

I watched everything he did and listened when he talked about gardening.

When my husband and I bought our home, it included two vacant lots. My immediate thought was, 'Hot dog, I'll plant my very own garden.' He bought a tiller with rear tines, so I could manage it. He had health issues and the garden maintenance was entirely my responsibility.

The first growing season was great. Two hundred square feet of garden space was plenty of room for a variety of vegetables. My father didn't live long enough to see my garden, but I know he would have been pleased.

It had a few weeds and scant blades of grass. I was keeping those under control, until there was a flash flood. The ground was soggy and didn't dry for a few days. The weeds and grass grew out of control. It seemed for every one weed I'd pull, two more appeared.

I covered the ground with a layer of hay. That worked for a couple of weeks. The weeds and grass grew through it. I resorted to my gardening book. It said that a layer of newspaper provided a good mulch and smothered weeds. One single sheet of newspaper wasn't thick enough. I worked several days covering the ground with newspapers. It worked! There were no weeds or grass.

When the growing season ended, I decided to use the riding lawn mower to shred the newspaper. I could then use the tiller to work it into the dirt.

The shredding was going as planned, until the wind started blowing. Shreds of paper were blowing everywhere! They looked like tumble weeds rolling across the land. I ceased shredding, ran as fast as I could for the tiller and started working shreds into the dirt. My father would have been laughing at me.

When the wind stopped blowing, I finished the project. I shredded several feet at a time and then worked the shreds into the dirt, just in case the wind started blowing again.

I quit planting in-ground gardens! I considered a green house, but I live in the hurricane evacuation belt on the gulf coast. I resorted to container gardening. The vegetable variety is limited, but what the heck! I still have fresh vegetables and the relaxing therapy of working with plants.

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