When I go into the garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Dédi has this gorgeous vegetable garden that puts most of the gardens that I have seen to shame. When the boys first saw it, one of them exclaimed, “That’s not a garden, it’s a little farm!”
In the garden with Dédi and one of her sisters and sampling peas
Dédi and her sister supervise as David and Mat work the land.
Can you tell that they are related?
Dédi works the garden every day alongside her sisters and some of her nephews. They grow everything that they need on a day to day basis like peppers, squash, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers and so much more. And those are just the vegetables. She also has a wide variety of fruit trees and flowers, including the prettiest hydrangeas I have ever seen.
Little Man learns to give each plant just enough water.
He quickly got the hang of things.
Big Guy discovered that working the land is a lot harder than it looks.
They all caught on pretty quickly
They get an early start (like 4:30 in the morning early) to avoid the hottest hours of the day and they seriously get more work done in those early hours than most people do in an entire day (no wonder they are all so fit). The boys got a small taste of just how much work it takes to tend a large garden as Dédi taught them to pull weeds, use a hoe, water each plant just enough and so much more. Their favorite part was getting to sample the various vegetables right there in the garden. Their favorites were the peas, cucumbers and cherries.
Dédi teaches Big Guy the proper technique for picking cherries
Showing off a cherry
While we were staying with Dédi, the boys spent at least a little time in the garden each day and some days, like the day all of these pictures were taken, they spent a great deal of time there. Gardening with Dédi helped teach them just how much work goes into growing their food and why it is important that they not waste their food. The boys were also excited to learn that David used to work in the garden alongside Dédi and his grandfather when he was a little boy. David has always wanted to have a property big enough to house a fairly sizable garden and after spending time in Dédi’s I can see why.
Enjoying life in the garden
I think David would be perfectly content to do this every day.
Everyone hard at work.
Finally calling it a day.