Memories...

Memories

I grew up on a farm in northern Ontario in Canada about 45 miles southwest of North Bay.  We had a 100-acre farm and my Dad raised beef cattle when I was little, but every year he grew a big garden.  We were nearly self-sufficient, we needed flour and sugar, my Dad baked bread and my Mom baked cookies and cakes and we caught, raised, or grew just about everything else or we traded for it.  

One of my fondest memories was when the seed catalogues came and my Dad and I would go through them picking which seeds he would order for that summers crop.  He taught me how to choose based on the kind of soil we had and the length of the growing season.  I learned about rotating the vegetables so that corn never grew in the same part of the garden because it took so much nitrogen out of the soil. 

Last spring I had signed up for a plot at the community garden here in Catonsville but Covid-19 put a stop to that.  But, I still ordered the seed catalogue from Meyers and my son and I chose what we would have grown in our little community garden and how we would lay it out.  I ended up growing my garden in containers on my deck instead.

At the time I don't think I truly appreciated the valuable life skills he taught me, it was just spending time with my Dad.  And, now I have fond memories of those cold winter evenings spent planning for warmer weather and spending time with my Dad!!

The seed catalogue came last week so the planning begins for another year!!