Growing up in Alabama, my mother always had a garden. When we lived in the country, the garden was on a plot below our house. But when we moved to Birmingham, my mom began gardening on some acreage at my grandfather’s house that was really a flood plain for Five Mile Creek. I ran the roto-tiller so I wouldn’t have to pick vegetables. I hated picking vegetables, especially okra and squash. But I loved the taste of fried okra and fresh tomatoes. As years went by, the vegetables from the grocery stores lost their taste, and soon, it was even hard to find good vegetables at farmer’s markets. I miss the taste of those freshly picked tomatoes, and now that I have young children; I want them to know that real vegetables are best grown at home, not bought at the grocery store.
So I decided to let them help me grow some herbs and tomatoes. Maybe we can find a large spot to grow a pumpkin. We really don’t have a lot of acreage at our disposal anymore. We sold Poppa Lollar’s house after he died, and the lake house is too far away to take care of a productive garden. So I picked up a few of the ubiquitous upside-down planters, and we have planted those with tomatoes, tomatillos, herbs and even peppers to make salsa verde, a favorite of both my daughters. I don’t know how effective we will be with this year’s crop, but I do know the girls will love seeing the plants bear fruit and when they eat what they have grown, it will have a special meaning to them.
For more family gardening post check these out  Family Gardening Update Week Three , Garden Update Week Two, The Great Waiting Game for Our Topsy Turvy Vegetables to Ripen, and The Great Pumpkin and the IBEW Strike of 1966.
