Seems like all folks can talk about these days is their gardens and how this or that are doing–and that’s just fine with me. I don’t watch many movies and the only TV I watch are Nick-Jr shows with my granddaughter and Chip Foose when my husband is playing with the remote as I try to go to sleep. That sort of limits my topics of conversation, but talking about gardens is something to get excited about. So anyway, a few of us decided to organize a little garden tour of sorts. Now my understanding is that in many places a garden tour is when a group of people dress up in fancy clothes and go around to “o-o” and “ah!” about well landscaped lawns and flowers. That ain’t how we do it here on Big Ugly. We climb into a pickup truck and go visiting to see how everybody’s vegetables and fruits are doing and if we can get any ideas on how to improve ours at home.
First stop was at the Toney’s. Amy and her kids grow the biggest garden they can and put up as much as they can.
At Amy’s they use cages for tomatoes and try to use every little space
Amy’s son (about 10–12 years old) showed us around. He was obviously proud and confident when he told us that he bet this was one of the best gardens on Big Ugly.
Rows of peppers are starting to bloom
Summer squash are starting to come in at the Toney’s.
A little rock ledge is a good place for lettuce
Old tires make good raised beds
Next stop was at Jessie’s sister Roxie’s garden. That garden is way down the bank, off the road beside the creek. Roxie and her husband don’t have children so they have to do all the work themselves.
Looking down at Roxie’s garden from the road
Another view of Roxie’s garden
Next we visited Dale Kennedy’s garden. We saw some of that in the last blog. Dale’s disability makes it impossible for him to garden in the traditional way, so a bit of homemade engineering allows him to continue gardening.
Amazing how much can be grown in a small space
More at the other raised bed.
Dale always end a conversation with “Have a blessed day.”
Dale ends our conversation with “Have a blessed day”
We had to stop by to see Jimmy and Darlene Workman. They are already getting new potatoes and summer squash. They gave us some zucchini that we took home and sauteed with a bit of olive oil. Oh my goodness–nothing tastes as good as something really fresh! My granddaughter loves to play with the chickens there.
The Workman garden has stakes/poles for beans
They are using tomato cages to grow some of their runner beans
Squash and pumpkins are running all over!
No Big Ugly garden tour would be complete without stopping to see General Peyton. He has been gardening his entire life here on Big Ugly and he will always share some wisdom from his experience.
General says that since it is just the two of them they have really cut down on the size of the garden
And of course General says nowadays he doesn’t put in a big garden like he used to. Still looks pretty fair sized, if you ask me.
General grows his tomatoes this way. He says he just “lets ’em run.”
Corn, onions, sweet potatoes in this end of the garden
The Peyton’s also have a row of dwarf peach trees.
General and Mrs. Peyton also grow flowers. These beautiful Clematis attract our attention
So that concludes the first annual Big Ugly Garden Tour. When I started writing this I figured it would be brief. But it has turned out to be pretty extensive. At each stop on the tour we had to “set a spell.” Consequently, visiting this small sample of gardens took most of the day. And there are still more to visit and more opportunities to “set a spell.”
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