April has arrived and with it some really great weather. Winter didn’t give up easily this year but left us with quite a lot of snow in the mountains and water rushing in the creeks. I love this time of year. For some reason it reminds me of my maternal grandparents.
When I was young they lived about a mile up the road from our house. It was an easy walk for a kid even though uphill all the way. We often walked up to visit. Grampa Pete always had a package of Juicy Fruit chewing gum in the front pocket of his Osh Kosh bib overalls and waited with a grin for us to ask for “a stick”. Grama Opal was always busy doing something. If we were lucky enough to find her in the garden she might offer us a quarter to weed a row of vegetables. This would have been circa 1968, so, 25 cents could actually buy something in those days, like a Big Hunk candy bar or a length of ribbon for our hair. But if Grama was in the house, we would have a very different experience. She must have had three different flavors of ice cream in her freezer box. That was back when ice cream came in actual quart boxes, not the less than a quart embarrassment we find in stores today. And she was always ready to ‘dish some up’ for us. Once it was on the table the tea came out. Hot, steaming Red Rose tea in a Currier & Ives tea cup on a matching saucer, if you please! That tea was amazing, not so much for the flavor, but more for the sheer volume of sugar and canned milk added to it. Oh sweet, sweet delight! And Grama made it just right. She always did.
Grama and Grampa were old soul farmers at heart having arrived in Idaho about 1948 from Cedar Rapids Iowa in, I am told, and old green Plymouth car which pulled a homemade trailer behind. Grampa’s sister, Vi ,and her family were already here. Vi and Harold as well as four of their children were living in what I honestly thought was a small barn when I saw it some 20 years later. But they had a great view of the Pend Oreille River just above Johnson Creek. Vi and Harold were not country folk and had no intention of becoming such. By the time I came along they were long gone to California. But Grama Opal and Grampa Pete remained and I am so very grateful that they did, for because of them I grew to love the land, farm animals, horses, fruit trees, birds and butterflies and Red Rose Tea. I thought they would live forever. I am now older than they were when we first met in 1958 and they have been gone for more than 24 years.
Because I had horses growing up, I rode constantly, summer and winter. There is this thing that happens in late winter/early spring that marks the moment when the snow and ice in the ditches begins to melt along the dirt roads and the roads themselves give up the frost beneath. It is the sound of running water. It is there even if you can’t see it, there beneath the melting domes of snow. The sound is imperceptible to the driver of a car but if a person is walking or on horseback, well, then the sound is a constant companion. This sound reminds me of my grandparents and my walks and rides to see them. This sound let’s my heart know that it is spring.
My grandparents made a huge impact on me in terms of gardening, raising food, feeding the birds, watching the weather and more. They grounded me to nature much more than my parents did. My Mom had a “fruit room “ in the basement. But Grama Opal had a root cellar, which still exists today. It is now my turn to foster a love for all things country life into the hearts and minds of my grandchildren, a process begun by their own mother. Everyday they help me with the chores and learn tasks they will need later. We feed the birds, plant vegetables and fruit trees. We care for the cats that keep the mice under control and love on the horses. And we read stories in the orchard just before dinner, now that everything is suddenly green and lovely.
The date is now April 28, 2025. Thus far we have planted flowers, potatoes, onions, spinach, swiss chard, green peas, and salad green mix. I have set up the hoop houses for the cucumbers and the green beans. The stock tanks have been set in place and filled for carrots and all the dahlias, peonies and strawberries are coming along. Lastly, the raspberry, black raspberry and currant shrubs await planting as well as 5 fruit trees. That’s a lot! But we are on target to have a nice garden in by the end of May, well after the last frost date.
Until next time, Happy Gardening!