Giving Thanks ~ The Happy Gardener and His Happy Helpers

This afternoon I took a break from making brine for our green bean pickles (yum!) and stepped out on the porch into the cool fall air. As is often the case, the Happy Gardener (aka DaddyDon) was working in the sunshine out in the big garden with one of his best gardening buddies, R. I just love seeing my kiddos pitching in and learning to love the land.

In the late autumn around here we are finishing up the last of our good fall veggies and planting winter crops like cabbages, broccoli, onions, and lettuces. I don't know which garden season is my favorite here in the south~ it works out great because just about the time we get good and tired of squash, the first frost of the season kills it and we get to move on to the salad greens. Or when we are up to our ears in watermelons they finish up and the tasty fall green beans come on strong.  When the summer weather gets too hot for anything else, the okra and peppers and zucchini are just hitting their stride. We may not get to have a white Christmas very often, but we sure can grow awesome veggies.

Today I am very, very thankful that my dear Daddy loves to garden, and more importantly, that he is teaching my children all the secrets he knows. We eat mighty well here at Pecan Bluff because of his vision and planning and all his hard work. And we are thankful that Gram pitches in wherever he needs her. The pictures below show just a fraction of the fun and bounty we get from our big ol' gardens through the year. What a blessing.

adapted from

The Garden Song

by David Mallett, sung by John Denver

Inch by inch, row by row

Gonna make this garden grow

All it takes is a rake and a hoe

And a piece of fertile ground

Inch by inch, row by row

Please bless these seeds I sow

Please warm them from below

'Till the rain comes tumbling down.

Pulling weeds and pickin' stones

Man is made of dreams and bones

Feel the need to grown my own

'Cause the time is close at hand.

Grain for grain, sun and rain,

Find my way in nature's chain

Tune my body and my brain

To the music from the land.

Plant your rows straight and long,

Temper them with a prayer and a song.

Mother earth will make you strong

If you give her love and care.

An old crow watching hungrily

From his perch in yonder tree.

And in my garden I'm as free

As that feathered thief up there.

Inch by inch, row by row

Gonna make this garden grow

All it takes is a rake and a hoe

And a piece of fertile ground

Inch by inch, row by row

Please bless these seeds I sow

Please warm them from below

Till the rain comes tumblin' down.