Reasons to Love Nashville, #774
Saturday shouldn’t have been interesting. Had a tentative date that, of course, the guy backed out on. Hit a couple of garage sales and bought a perfect messenger bag for my scooter for only $30. At the farmers market i bought a giant bag of groceries, 8 pepper plants, 4 tomato plants and an oregano plant for less than $20.
And then I happened upon a garage sale.
The house was a classic Nashville brick ranch. The front part of the driveway was littered with deer heads, birdhouses and camping gear. But at the back of the driveway sat an older woman. She saw me pick up a flower pot (I was thinking I could plant one of my new pepper plants in it), and she said “Do you like plants” and I responded, “I am trying to.”
She lumbered up from her seat. Leaving her cane behind, the woman moved slowly, inching her way over to another pot and said, “Let me help you.”
Her 11 year-old grand daughter rolled her eyes. “Granny Sue has someone to talk about plants with,” she exclaimed. I asked if she liked plants and the young girl with pink streaks in her hair said a definitive “No.”
At this, 75 years of knowledge of gardening poured from the woman.
Brown bananas attract butterflies.
If you plant marigolds by tomatoes you won’t get any bugs
Take the last tomato of the year and just leave it on the dirt. It will seed itself for next season.
Planting 1 hot pepper underground by sweet potatoes will keep moles away
Tale after tale of how to keep your plants happy and healthy. I’d ask a question and Granny Sue would respond “just plant it.”
Does this need to be in the shade? “Just plant it.”
Don’t strawberries need to be in a yard? “Just plant it.”
Is this pot big enough? “Just plant it.”
She made clippings of geraniums, lambs ears, strawberries, sweet potatoes and assorted plants. She spoke stream of consciousness, “Keep these in water, and then, just plant them. If they look like they are dead, just keep watering them”
She then donated to my cause several planters that still had the remnants of dying looking plants in them. “Just add your tomato plants to these. They are plenty deep,” I think she could read my mind “and no, these other plants aren’t dead. Just water them. And plant the tomatoes. With some marigolds.”
I drove my car up behind the house, took the top off and loaded up my back seat with plants. She wished me luck and waved and said she wanted to come up and see my garden deck when it was in full bloom.
As I drove away, something hit me. Granny Sue said most of the time plants aren’t dead, they just need to be taken care of in a new way. Water them more. Water them less. Move them from direct sun to the shade. Replant them. Give them space.
That’s probably just like a lot of us. A few years ago, people might have written me off, where really I just needed to be replanted in a new space so I could thrive. Others who have fallen onto hard times or have made wrong decisions just need a little more water. Probably a lot of us could use days with more sun.
So I’ve started my deck-top gardening adventure with about 37 plants. I hope that maybe I can live my life with a few of Granny Sue’s lessons. Some of these plants may be meant for big gardens, but they will grow, and hopefully thrive where they are planted. There might be a few people in my life that I could offer some water.
I’ll keep you updated on the garden, but here’s what it looks like today.
