Tilling? Thrilling

My introduction to gardening was probably in the spring of 1952. We lived in a small home in Marshall, Missouri. Next to the house was an empty lot owned by the neighbor. Dad had asked them if we could plant a garden in that lot. They said, "yes," so Dad gave me instructions on turning the soil. This was pre-garden- tiller days.

Dad stretched out a 25-foot section of binder twine and tied each end of the twine to a wooden stake. which he pounded in the ground. He then showed me how use a round point spade to dig deep into the soil, lift the soil, and turn it when replacing it in the hole formed by the spade. The spade was about one foot wide, so I made 25 turns of soil going along the twine from one stake to another.

As you can now surmise, Dad moved the twine about 18 inches, and I got to turn another 25 spadefuls (I'm not sure spadefuls is a legitimate word) of soil. Since the garden was to be 25 feet by 25 feet, you can calculate how many times I had to push the spade into the soil and turn it. As I was doing the turning, I kept thinking, "I am so glad I don't have to do this until next spring."

In late spring of 1955 our family moved to Cape Girardeau. As luck would have it, we moved into a home that had an empty lot next to us, owned by a neighbor who allowed us plant a garden. So Dad got out the binder twine and showed me where to start turning the soil. Again I kept thinking, "I'm glad I don't have to do this again until next spring."

To my dismay, Dad went out to the garden area in August and set out the binder twine and told me to spade the garden again. I had to do it again? I didn't understand that the growing season was much longer in Cape Girardeau than in Marshall. I will say, though, we enjoyed fresh vegetables from our garden late in the fall.

A bag of blooming and rooting fertilizer at Sunny Hill Gardens & Florist Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015. (Glenn Landberg)

If you have never planted a fall garden, get out your tiller (not the spade) and turn the soil so you can start your fall garden.

So what do you plant? Most seasoned gardeners start by planting cole crops (cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli). Go to your local garden center and purchase starter plants. After you get them home and have them planted, water them in with a solution of high phosphorous fertilizer, such as a 9-58-8. This will encourage these newly planted seedlings to grow a good root system so the plant can produce into the fall.

While at the garden center, get some seed packages of lettuce, kale, turnips, radishes, Swiss chard and peas. These plants can withstand cool days and even frost later in the fall.

You may also want to get short-day seed varieties of green beans and corn. A short-day vegetable variety will mature within 50 to 60 days after planting from seed. You could enjoy fresh green beans and corn in the middle of October and in some cases at Thanksgiving.

Oh, by the way, I surely do thank God for garden tillers.