My Father's Garden

These days are long gone now, but this was my father's garden in my old hometown in South Carolina. This had been a hobby all through his years as Superintendant of schools and the garden simply grew in size next to their retirement home afterwards. He grew such difficult things as asparagus, which takes two years to bear, every vegetable you can think of, melons...In fact he was so good at it that the town Horticultural Association invited him to give several guest speeches on tending the soil, rotating crops properly and not leeching out the necessary nutrients by planting the wrong plant where another had been before.

He grew up on a farm in a teeeeny town called Honea Path, South Carolina, and the farmer inside never left him.

I still miss him so much, though it's been 21 years now since he died the day after Christmas in 1986. I was fortunate to be by his rented hospital bed at our parents' home when he took his last breath and left us.