Grandmothers and Gardens

I have so many fond memories of working in gardens with both of my grandmothers, but I also have different memories for each grandmother. When I think of gardening with Granny Devine, I think of snowball bushes, elephant ears and sage. When I think of gardening with Granny Sallee, I think of peonies, poppies and corn. Each woman had a major input in my life and I can contribute most of my gardening knowledge to them.

Most of my gardening memories with Granny Sallee centered around activities on the farm in Bohon. The farm was 20-plus acres, but the house and Granny’s flower beds were on the one acre that was closest to Bohon road. I love this old farm house and have had many dreams of living there throughout my life. The house sits back off the road and at a slight angle, so when you come down the curving hill past the Bohon Christian Church, the house is sitting in the bend of the road. I spent many happy days roaming this farm and my most favorite memories are of helping Granny with her flowers.

Peonies were always Granny Sallee’s favorite and she had many clumps that ran along a ridge line on the upper side of the house. I know these clumps of flowers were old because I can remember Granny telling me she had planted each and every “start”. She loved these flowers so much, that when she and Granddaddy finally had to move to town, she brought some peonies with her and planted them near the clothesline in the back yard. Peonies were one of the first flowers that I planted 14 years ago when we moved to our home. I started out with three peonies; one red, one pink, and one white. Over the past few years, I have divided my original clumps and transplanted them in several areas of my gardens. The majority of my peonies are now along the length of our driveway where they are thriving in the full sun.

Granny Sallee also loved her poppies. She had these close to the house and also near her rows of peonies. These large orange flowers were always so welcomed in the spring, being some of the first to bloom after the tulips and daffodils. These beautiful orange flowers had deep black stamens and when the seed pods formed they added interest in the gardens. Granny would leave the seed heads throughout the summer, and then in the fall, we would shake the seed pods to distribute the tiny seeds in the beds. These little seeds would guarantee an abundant supply of poppies for next spring.

Corn was a crop that not only reminded me of my Granny, but my Granddaddy as well. Granddaddy had an old wooden corn planter and I can remember helping to push the planter into the tilled soil, spread the handles open and drop a seed into the shoot. When the planter was removed from the soil, the seed would be planted at the right depth for growing wonderful sweet corn. I would also give each corn planting a dipper of water from the five gallon buckets we had hauled from the house. I still grow corn in my backyard garden, but it is mainly for the memories and to have the stalks for fall decorations. In my garden, there is too much competition with the raccoons for the fresh corn. Now, I get most of my fresh corn from the Farmer’s Market on Thursday afternoons, and I let the raccoons have the few ears that I grow in the garden.

Snowball bushes were one of Granny Devine’s favorite plants. At her small home in town, she had a large bush next to her clothesline in the back yard. Every year, Granny would clone babies from her snowball bush by pulling down branches from the main plant, burying part of the stem in the ground and covering with a rock. It would take a year for the stem to take root, but once it did, Granny would cut it from the main plant and dig up a baby snowball bush. Although I don’t have one of Granny’s snowball babies, I have started several different families from one original bush that I planted about eight years ago.

Sage is one of my favorite herbs to grow and again, I learned to grow sage from Granny Devine. Granny would always have sage growing in her flower beds, and during the summer and fall you could always find paper towels laden with sage leaves drying all throughout the house. Granny always used her fresh dried sage in her Thanksgiving and Christmas stuffing. I dry some sage throughout the year, but I also let several clumps of sage go flower because the flowers are very pretty and they attract beneficial bugs to my gardens. Also, sage gives off a refreshing scent when you brush against it while walking in the garden.

Elephant ears are the one plant my Granny Devine loved that I have always had trouble growing. Granny grew her ears in plastic buckets; during the winter she stored them under her house and during the summer she would pull them out into the gardens. She was also able to produce babies from her elephant ears. I have grown elephant ears in the past, but I don’t like to baby these tender plants. The few times I have grown elephant ears, I have planted them straight into the garden soil. I did have one elephant ear that wintered over and grew larger the next summer, but most of the time, the bulbs die because I don’t dig them in the fall for storage.

As my children grow older, they have varying interest in gardening. Christine does not have any interest in flowers or gardening, but Amber and Marie are beginning to enjoy working with different plants. Amber has planted numerous flowers at her new home and she is taking an interest in learning about new plants. Marie’s best friend also has a new home, so Marie has been helping her start a new flower bed, as well as planting a few flowers at her own home. I have enjoyed being a resource person to answer all the gardening questions and I look forward to teaching the next generation of our family about gardening.

© Bobbi Rightmyer, April 2007