Summertime in the Garden

Lawdy, it’s hot!

If we don’t get some rain soon, I think we are all going to melt.  Not to mention the garden.  Oh, the garden is taking the heat.

My sweet parents have been gardening probably 50 years or so, close to it anyway.  I can’t remember a time when they did not have a garden, it’s been a ritual around our house forEVER.  Growing up, part of me and my sister’s chores was to go and pick out the rocks in this back yard garden, which were plentiful back then, to make way for the garden.  We thought at the time we were being harshly mistreated, having to work that garden.   We were convinced the rocks were multiplying.  As soon as we picked up a bunch of them, more were in their place, it seemed.  But, this dirt finally got in shape and ready to grow some bountiful produce for our family.  And truth be told, we didn’t have much to do with this garden producing at all.  The total credit goes to our parents.

It’s been producing a whole lot of years now. This little 1/2 acre lot has seen some delicious fruits and veggies in its time.   We used to live next door to this house and just over the fence there was the original backyard garden that fed our family. 

My sweet, 84 years old in July daddy still lives for gardening. It is what keeps him going and gets him out of bed every day in the spring and summer months, tending to his plants and coaxing them to grow some delicious stuff for us. 

Here he is just a few weeks ago, hoeing those weeds tirelessly, keeping the rows clean and neat so that when the bounty comes, he can get in there and pick.

This is one hard working man, that daddy of mine.

His hard work paid off and just about 2 weeks later, the garden looks like this.  Quite a difference from picture #1 up there. 

The tomatoes are looking good and these are what concern me the most.  I love me some fresh tomatoes, as do so many of my friends and family.  We live for the first tomato sandwich of the summer.  Can’t be beat!  Sometime around July 4th, we should have our tomato fix. 

Daddy has muscadine grapes growing in the backyard, which get ripe in late summer.  Is this a Southern thing or do ya’ll know what these are?  I’ll have to show them to you when they get ripe.  One is a black skinned fruit and the other a golden green fruit.  I used to love to eat these, but not so much anymore, although they are really sweet when fully ripe.

Although they have HUGE blueberry bushes growing up at their NC mountain house, he also added some blueberries to the backyard here in Georgia.  You can’t have too many blueberries and these are finally taking off and are loaded this year.

Dad loves figs too and planted 3 fig trees, which are now humongous and have taken over the backyard.  This one is loaded.

I wish I loved figs, but sadly do not.  Daddy will make up for my lack of fig love by eating a boatload of figs when they get ripe.  I do however, love fig cake.   I can see some of this delectable stuff in our near future.

Another huge fig tree helps shade the backyard, my dad’s swing in particular.  Anyone else have an old clothesline in the backyard?  Back in the day, my mama hung up all our wash on clotheslines.  I can still remember that and did not enjoy that chore either.  Hanging or bringing in!   Give me an electric dryer any day. 🙂

His swing is nestled in the front of the fig tree and is his favorite spot to relax. 

I almost cried at leaving behind the huge blackberries that we planted in Alabama last year, but my daddy dug several of these small plants up when I moved and here they are, looking good.  Next year, they should produce  many berries.  We all love blackberries, so it was a no-brainer to bring some of these to Georgia.

Finally, I brought my Meyer lemon tree with me that I got from Petals from the Past last fall and it’s got some babies growing.  I’m so excited!  Not sure what I’ll do with them, but it’s fun to see citrus growing in the backyard. 

Even though we desperately need rain, this is the bounty picked this week and hopefully the first of many meals that our family will eat this summer of fresh veggies from the garden.

We will be frying, sauteeing, casseroling, and who knows what else with this squash and zucchini.  🙂  Fried squash is my fave.  All of this was picked last week and we scarfed it down.

Added by popular demand!

Mom’s Fried Squash

She puts about a pint of canola oil into a deep pan for frying.  Use whatever pot you have that can be heated up to medium-high heat. You want that oil hot, but not too hot!  She slices up the squash first and salts them, let them sit for a bit for the salt to bring out some of the water.  Mix up self-rising flour and buttermilk into a light batter.  Dip the squash in that batter and fry them, baby!

That’s it!  They are SO good.

How about YOU?  Are you gardening this year?  Tell me what you’re growing.

I’ll have plenty more garden stories to share with you later.