Let Us Cultivate Our Garden
Ben Ashby
Musing about being a first time gardener and growing things in the dirt
Perhaps I have read too much Eudora Welty, or perhaps I’ve listened to too much Eudora Welty on Audible, or perhaps I have watched my old VHS copy of Steel Magnolias one too many times, but I have found myself really settling into this Kentucky-southern-farmhouse-small town-rural-slow living-old fashioned-life. There is something completely fulfilling about it, about being a part of a community, and about being a part of this piece of land.
When I moved to Kentucky full time in December my strongest desire was to be a part of the community. I grew up here, my family grew up here, we’ve been here for a very long time. We are one of those original land grant families. Kentucky became a state after we settled on this land. Back then this farm grew sugar cane, typically a tropical crop, that leads me to many questions about how it so successfully grew here, but thats a topic for another day. We’ve established roots here and I wanted to be part of that. I love the cities, but the cities tend to be cold and impersonal. I wanted that Fried Green Tomatoes or Hope Floats sort of experience. Yes, I do blame this on Eudora Welty and Harper Lee. I blame my love of southern gothic literature on this place and I blame my love of this place on southern gothic literature.
I will however admit I really love that living here, in a very low cost of living region, allows me to travel much more than New York City did. This summer has already brought trips to both coasts and promises more adventures east and west and all over the fly over states in between. I have found this balance fuels my love of my hometown and inspires me on what we can do here in my hometown based on things I’ve seen in small towns across the U.S. Lately I’ve been alternating staying at home and taking quick weekend trips. I figured it might make for good blog and web content….so…here goes.
Fueled by all this southern gothic literature and Ouisers proclamation that we must wear funny hats and grow things in the dirt I have really taken a liking to gardening. I grew up with there being a massive garden here, but after my aunt and my grandfather’s deaths the garden lay dominant except for the scrubs and weeds that slowly, yet eagerly took over. Together they grew one of those old fashioned country gardens…the kind that taught you at an early age how to break beans, shuck corn, and how to properly plant a row. Those days are long gone though. This year I decided I’d plant a small garden for myself. It started with a plot 1/12 of the original size garden in a spot that really isn’t fit to grow much more than autumn turnips and mustard greens, but the spot makes for good photos so here we are. Three short rows were tilled and readied. Now anyone with any gardening knowledge at all, or with a bit of Martha Stewart 1990s research, will know rows should be planted north to south to maximize sun exposure, but this is a garden that is over 100 years old, and it runs east to west.
Throw in a clay based soil and it’ll be a modern miracle if this garden produces much more than ragweed and crab grass. But here we are with three rows out behind the clothes line next to the blueberry bushes. I went to the greenhouse and procured a three pack of every garden plant they had and enough tomatoes to put up a few mason jars for winter….no I don’t know how to properly can, but thank you for asking.
Beautiful little garden. The plants were watered daily and the tomatoes were staked with tobacco sticks and twine. Three rows suddenly felt small. I craved six. I wanted Kentucky pole beans to grow high up in the sky. I wanted cane polls tied together in cute trellises, but that will come next year. This year will have my Kentucky pole beans growing on the tallest variety of sweet corn I could find. The photos will be beautiful, exactly how I intended. Another row of tomatoes was added so I could have variety from pale pink to deep purple in color. Herbs were added to fill in spaces since my herb garden was taken over by grass, and a row of wildflowers has yet to be added along a fence I will make out of tobacco sticks. Those will be next week’s projects. Space was also added for twenty or so lavender plants so that we can have a cut your own area at our markets and popups in the coming years. Watermelons and gourds still need to be planted. The space will be filled with wildflower seed to hopefully cover area that would otherwise be an inviting home to weeds and grass.
Next year I will start my garden early, I will hopefully also have a greenhouse, but for now the baby steps are in place to have a garden that will provide enough for a few recipes, endless photos, a few meals around this dining table I currently sit at. One day I will even perhaps have a garden the size of what it once was, but there is much to do before then.
These photos are my garden coming together. I will share more as the season progresses on. I will hopefully start sharing at least one post a week from life here on the farm and from my travels. Life is best lived slow and steady, and here we have both.
