Garden plans

I think I was six years old the morning I went out with my mother to work in the garden.

She hoed some, pulled a few weeds and thinned her squash, leaving the pulledup plants along the row.

“That’s kind of a waste,” I said to myself.

“Yes, it is,” I replied. “You should plant those in your sand pile and see if they grow.”

And so I did.

There was a small pile of sand left over from a bygone construction project that hadbecome my defacto playground.

I transplanted three ofthe squash plants into the sand and watered them deeply.

They took root and soon were growing better than the plants in Mom’s garden.

These were yellow crooked neck squash, which is the only kind of squash I can remember my parents growing.

I watered them faithfully and was greatly excited when the first one bloomed and formed a tiny yellow squash.

Once they started producing, I was taking a squash to my mother every day or two.

She’d roll them in cornmeal and flour and fry them in a skillet for supper.

I can say with complete objectivity that they were the best-tasting squash ever grown.

It was a sad day later that summer when the squash quit blooming, then turned brown and went to that great garden in the sky.

Those three squash plants were a good experience, helping me connect the dots along the path that brought food to the table and underlining the fact that food you grow tastes 14 times better than the food you buy.

So, as an adult I have tended to have a garden most years, and often have way too big of a garden.

I always have a couple of yellow crooked neck squash plants, although I quit planting them in the spring.

Squash bugs seem much more of a nuisance than they used to be and I don’t like poisoning my food to get rid of them.

So I learned to plant squash in late June or July and never have problems with squash bugs.

The past four years, I have been too busy to plant and care for a garden, but I plan on it this year.

At least some okra, sweet potatoes and tomatoes.

And some yellow crooked neck squash.