Mom was right

  It has been springlike weather here for the past month or so. Things are green!  Flowers are blooming!  Birds are nesting!  And now, a cold spell is to settle in on us.  Hmmm?  Mom was (and is still) right.  Her warnings that an "Easter Freeze" is going to hurt my little seedlings may be all to correct.  She used to fuss at Pop for planting his tomatoes, peppers, squash and corn early in the year.  He was always eager to "get things going" in the garden.  When that late cool spell would hit, most folks could waltz out to the garden and cover their ten tomato plants but Pop had hundreds set out in the field. How do you cover those?  He might have several acres of sweet corn already several inches high and squash or cucumbers well on their way to becoming nice size plants.  Acres of plants are hard to protect from the elements.  I can remember getting off the school bus and hearing him call to the kids "Come on.  Lets go cover those plants."  No easy task.  He had an old shed in the field that housed fertilizer and a several hundred plastic flower pots.  It was our job to retrieve the pots and cover the small tomato and pepper plants. Those pots were usually filled with creepy crawlies!  I can recall finding Black Widow Spiders in the pots on more than one occasion! While the kids covered plants with flower pots, he was on the tractor carefully using the cultivators to pull dirt over the corn, squash and cucumber seedlings.  After the threat of frost or freeze, we would uncover those same plants.  The dirt had to be pulled away by hand so a good deal of our time was spent on our knees. Good times!

  Today, Michael and I headed out to "frost-proof" our own little garden plots.  The Little Bayou House gardens can never compare the the acres upon acres that Pop planted.  My three short rows of squash only contain about thirty-six plants.  A few planks and some blankets sufficed.  The raised gardens were easier.  When Mark constructed them, we were pleasantly surprised to find that some old windows fit perfectly across the top!  Since the plants were still small enough to sit inside, I just placed the glasses across the boxes.  Those plants are snug as a bug in a rug!  

  Now we shall see if the plants survive!  Mom's prediction of cold weather still rings through my head each time I jump the gun and plant early.  I can't help it.  Planting is something I was taught to love. That old saying "You can take the girl off the farm but cannot take the farm out of the girl." sure applies here!  Old habits die hard.  Stay warm!